Root Research

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Water uptake by plant roots is important for plant physiology governing plant water use and productivity. As a common method for root water uptake, root hydraulic conductivity is widely used and defines the intrinsic ability of roots to conduct water across a water potential gradient between the root surface and the xylem in the roots. An advantage of root hydraulic conductivity methods is that there is a direct measurement of the water movement. The pressure chamber has been widely used in the measurement of hydraulic conductivity of plant in mainly crop and small size of seedlings. On the other hand, there is a little information on direct measurement of water uptake of tree fine roots (usually < 2 mm in diameter) under forest field, mostly due to inadequacy in the techniques available. Here, we have introduced a technique for measuring root hydraulic conductivity to determine the fine root physiological function in forest field condition.

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