Significant transpirational water loss occurs throughout the night in field-grown tomato
Mairgareth A. Caird A B , James H. Richards A and Theodore C. Hsiao AA Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616-8627, USA.
B Corresponding author. Email: m.caird.christman@utah.edu
Functional Plant Biology 34(3) 172-177 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP06264
Submitted: 19 October 2006 Accepted: 29 January 2007 Published: 22 March 2007
Abstract
Incomplete stomatal closure at night can result in substantial water loss at times when photosynthetic carbon gain is not occurring in C3 and C4 plant species. To investigate the magnitude of nighttime water loss for a crop species in the field, measurements of nighttime water loss by tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv. Heinz 8892) were made by three methods: a field-scale lysimeter and two leaf-level instruments, an automated viscous flow porometer and a portable photosynthesis system. The portable photosynthesis system indicated nighttime transpiration of 10% of maximal daytime transpiration and the viscous flow porometer demonstrated partially open stomata. Integrated crop water loss during the dark, non-photosynthetic hours measured on the lysimeter was 3–10.8% of total daily water loss. In the glasshouse, a survey of closely related wild and cultivated tomato species showed that under ambient conditions nighttime transpiration varied within and among species and was 8–33% of maximal daytime transpiration. Implications of such a substantial fraction of total daily crop water use occurring during the night are significant in agronomic, environmental, and economic terms. Further, variation within and among species in nighttime water loss has implications for breeding to improve crop water use efficiency.
Additional keywords: Lycopersicon, nighttime transpiration, stomatal conductance, transpiration.
Acknowledgements
We thank Tony Matista for construction and testing of the viscous flow porometers and for technical assistance, Eduardo Blumwald and Janice Pfeiff for use of the Moneymaker WT and transgenic plants, and NSF for a Graduate Research Fellowship to MAC. This research was supported by NSF IBN-9903004 and IBN-0416581 to JHR, USDI/Bureau of Reclamation CALFED Bay-Delta Program Agreement no. 00FC200205 with TCH, and the California Agricultural Experiment Station.
Barbour MM,
Cernusak LA,
Whitehead D,
Griffin KL,
Turnbull MH,
Tissue DT, Farquhar GD
(2005) Nocturnal stomatal conductance and implications for modeling δ18O of leaf-respired CO2 in temperate tree species. Functional Plant Biology 32, 1107–1121.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Benyon R
(1999) Nighttime water use in an irrigated Eucalyptus grandis plantation. Tree Physiology 19, 853–859.
| PubMed |
Boyer JS,
Wong SC, Farquhar GD
(1997) CO2 and water vapor exchange across leaf cuticle (epidermis) at various water potentials. Plant Physiology 114, 185–191.
| PubMed |
Bucci SJ,
Scholz FG,
Goldstein G,
Meinzer FC,
Hinojosa JA,
Hoffmann WA, Franco AC
(2004) Processes preventing nocturnal equilibration between leaf and soil water potential in tropical savanna woody species. Tree Physiology 24, 1119–1127.
| PubMed |
Bucci SJ,
Goldstein G,
Meinzer FC,
Franco AC,
Campanello P, Scholz FG
(2005) Mechanisms contributing to seasonal homeostasis of minimum leaf water potential and predawn disequilibrium between soil and plant water potential in neotropical savanna trees. Trees – Structure, Function 19, 296–304.
Caird MA,
Richards JH, Donovan LA
(2007) Nighttime stomatal conductance and transpiration in C3 and C4 plants. Plant Physiology 143, 4–10.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed |
Daley MJ, Phillips NG
(2006) Interspecific variation in nighttime transpiration and stomatal conductance in a mixed New England deciduous forest. Tree Physiology 26, 411–419.
| PubMed |
Donovan LA,
Richards JH, Linton MJ
(2003) Magnitude and mechanisms of disequilibrium between predawn plant and soil water potentials. Ecology 84, 463–470.
Goddard WB
(1970) A floating drag-plate lysimeter for atmospheric boundary layer research. Journal of Applied Meteorology 9, 373–378.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Green SR,
McNaughton KG, Clothier BE
(1989) Observations of nighttime water use in kiwifrit vines and apple trees. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 48, 251–261.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Gregory FG, Pearse HL
(1934) The resistance porometer and its application to the study of stomatal movement. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B B144, 477–493.
Grulke NE,
Alonso R,
Nguyen T,
Cascio C, Dobrowolski W
(2004) Stomata open at night in pole-sized and mature ponderosa pine: implications for O3 exposure metrics. Tree Physiology 24, 1001–1010.
| PubMed |
Herzog KM,
Thum R,
Kronfub G,
Heldstab H-J, Hasler R
(1998) Patterns and mechanisms of transpiration in a large subalpine Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.). Ecological Research 13, 105–116.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Howard AR, Donovan LA
(2007) Helianthus nighttime conductance and transpiration respond to soil water but not nutrient availability. Plant Physiology 143, 145–155.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed |
Muchow RC,
Ludlow MM,
Fisher MJ, Myers RJK
(1980) Stomatal behaviour of kenaf and sorghum in a semiarid tropical environment. I. During the night. Australian Journal of Plant Physiology 7, 609–619.
Musselman RC, Minnick TJ
(2000) Nocturnal stomatal conductance and ambient air quality standards for ozone. Atmospheric Environment 34, 719–733.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Pruitt WO, Angus DE
(1960) Large weighing lysimeter for measuring evapotranspiration. Transactions of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers
, 13–15.
Rawson HM, Clarke JM
(1988) Nocturnal transpiration in wheat. Australian Journal of Plant Physiology 15, 397–406.
Rosenberg NJ
(1969) Seasonal patterns in evapotranspiration by irrigated alfalfa in the Central Great Plains. Agronomy Journal 61, 879–886.
Segschneider H-J,
Wildt J, Forstel H
(1995) Uptake of 15NO2 by sunflower (Helianthus annuus) during exposures in light and darkness: quantities, relationship to stomatal aperture and incorporation into different nitrogen pools within the plant. New Phytologist 131, 109–119.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Snyder KA,
Richards JH, Donovan LA
(2003) Nighttime conductance in C3 and C4 species: do plants lose water at night? Journal of Experimental Botany 54, 861–865.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed |
Steduto P, Hsiao TC
(1998) Maize canopies under two soil water regimes. IV. Validity of Bowen ratio-energy balance technique for measuring water vapor and carbon dioxide fluxes at 5-minute intervals. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 89, 215–228.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Zhang H-X, Blumwald E
(2001) Transgenic salt-tolerant tomato plants accumulate salt in foliage but not in fruit. Nature 19, 765–768.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
