Water Relations of Plants attempts to explain the importance of water through a description of the factors that control the plant water balance and how they affect the physiological processes that determine the quantity and quality of growth. Organized into 13 chapters, this book first discusses the functions and properties of water and the plant cell water relations. Subsequent chapters focus on measurement and control of soil water, as well as growth and functions of root. This book also looks into the water absorption, the ascent of sap, the transpiration, and the water stress and its effects on plant processes and growth. This book will be useful for students, teachers, and investigators in both basic and applied plant science, as well as for botanists, agronomists, foresters, horticulturists, soil scientists, and even laymen with an interest in plant water relations.

Water Relations of Plants and Soils, successor to the seminal 1983 book by Paul Kramer, covers the entire field of water relations using current concepts and consistent terminology. Emphasis is on the interdependence of processes, including rate of water absorption, rate of transpiration, resistance to water flow into roots, soil factors affecting water availability. New trends in the field, such as the consideration of roots (rather than leaves) as the primary sensors of water stress, are examined in detail. Addresses the role of water in the whole range of plant activities Describes molecular mechanisms of water action in the context of whole plants Synthesizes recent scientific findings Relates current concepts to agriculture and ecology Provides a summary of methods

Principles of Soil and Plant Water Relations, 2e describes the principles of water relations within soils, followed by the uptake of water and its subsequent movement throughout and from the plant body. This is presented as a progressive series of physical and biological interrelations, even though each topic is treated in detail on its own. The book also describes equipment used to measure water in the soil-plant-atmosphere system. At the end of each chapter is a biography of a scientist whose principles are discussed in the chapter. In addition to new information on the concept of celestial time, this new edition also includes new chapters on methods to determine sap flow in plants dual-probe heat-pulse technique to monitor water in the root zone. - Provides the necessary understanding to address advancing problems in water availability for meeting ecological requirements at local, regional and global scales - Covers plant anatomy: an essential component to understanding soil and plant water relations

This 33-chapter volume presents a critical examination of the importance of stable isotopes in understanding key plant metabolic processes. - Carbon isotope analyses for estimates of plant water use and metabolism - Integrated estimates of stress impacts and life history in ecological systems - Hydrogen and oxygen isotope analyses for evaluating water sources and transpiration - Use of stable isotopes in scaling from leaf to global levels - Sections include: History and Theoretical Considerations, Ecological Aspects of Carbon Isotope Variation, Agricultural Aspects of Carbon Isotope Variation, Genetics and Isotopic Variation, Water Relations and Isotopic Composition

A grasp of key elements of several disparate disciplines is required in order to fully understand the sustainable management of water. The authors, who have undertaken extensive field work and published widely take an international perspective on water in the environment in order to tackle issues of dryland salinity and water allocation.

A shortage of water exists, not only in the arid regions of the world, but even in some moderately humid climates. This situation is a consequence of water require ments for agriculture and industry in amounts greater than the natural surplus. Even in Europe there is increased anxiety over the state of water reserves, and shortages are forecast for the near future if industry continues to expand. During the past 50 years in the United States, water use has increased about twice as fast as the rate of population growth, and shortages have already appeared in some places. The need to conserve declining water resources which has become apparent over the last few decades has led several investigators to conclude that plants with a high rate of transpiration endanger water resources, and the growth of such plants must not be encouraged. Some think that trees withdraw more water from the soil than other plant species and evaporate it excessively through the stomata of leaves. THORNTHWAITE and HARE (1955) explained transpiration on the same thermo dynamic basis as evaporation, and calculated its rate, using DALTON'S law or modifications thereof. In spite ofthe many past and present investigations into the problems of transpiration, the biological aspects of this essential process is still poorly understood.