The Green Side of the Water Cycle: New Advances in the Study of Plant Water Dynamics

Ferrio JP, Dubbert M, Máguas CM, eds. (2020). The Green Side of the Water Cycle: New Advances in the Study of Plant Water Dynamics. Lausanne: Frontiers Media SA. doi: 10.3389/978-2-88966-114-5

e-book of research topic "The Green Side of the Water Cycle: New Advances in the Study of Plant Water Dynamics"

About 500 My ago, the major challenge faced by the first terrestrial plant was the acquisition of water resources. Nowadays, water availability is still one of the main environmental factors shaping the evolution of terrestrial plants. Hence, the study of the ability of different plant species to extract water from the soil and deliver it to the canopy is crucial to understand terrestrial ecosystems. However, the assessment of root distribution and activity relies mainly on destructive and labor-intensive methods, which are not the most suitable to understand temporal dynamics of water uptake. On the other hand, to establish the link between below-ground and above-ground processes requires a precise estimation of whole-plant transpiration, canopy-atmosphere exchange and water storage patterns. Assessing these processes at the plant level is still challenging due to the trade-off between the implicit uncertainty of up-scaling approaches and the complexity of in vivo direct measurements. With this Research Topic, we aim to integrate the information currently available from the multiple disciplines that so far have addressed this topic, creating a discussion forum among the existing perspectives and approaches.

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