Plant Cultural System for Monitoring Evapotranspiration and Physiological Responses under Field Conditions

摘要

A plant culture system incorporating the water-table root-screen method for controlling plant water status was adapted for use in open-top field exposure chambers for studying the effects of drought stress on physiological responses. The daily transpiration rates of the plants were closely coupled to environmental conditions and reflected the daily variation in pan evaporation. In the cultural systems the unstressed plants grew and matured normally, however, drought stress reduced leaf water potential, leaf conductance, transpiration and plant biomass. The cultural system provides a method to subject plants to reproducible levels of drought stress.