title: A series RCL circuit theory for analyzing non-steady-state water uptake of maize plants.
abstract: Understanding water uptake and transport through the soil-plant continuum is vital for ecosystem management and agricultural water use. Plant water uptake under natural conditions is a non-steady transient flow controlled by root distribution, plant configuration, soil hydraulics, and climatic conditions. Despite significant progress in model development, a mechanistic description of transient water uptake has not been developed or remains incomplete. Here, based on advanced electrical network theory (RLC circuit theory), we developed a non-steady state biophysical model to mechanistically analyze the fluctuations of uptake rates in response to water stress. We found that the non-steady-state model captures the nature of instantaneity and hysteresis of plant water uptake due to the considerations of water storage in plant xylem and coarse roots (capacitance effect), hydraulic architecture of leaf system (inductance effect), and soil-root contact (fuse effect). The model provides insights into the important role of plant configuration and hydraulic heterogeneity in helping plants survive an adverse environment. Our tests against field data suggest that the non-steady-state model has great potential for being used to interpret the smart water strategy of plants, which is intrinsically determined by stem size, leaf size/thickness and distribution, root system architecture, and the ratio of fine-to-coarse root lengths.
authors.affiliation: 1] Key Laboratory of Pollution Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China [2] Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhuang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geographic Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Gui-Rui
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Horticulture, Chiba University, Matsudo, Japan.
authors.forename: Keiichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakayama
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D004777:Environment; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D012987:Soil; D014867:Water; D003313:Zea mays / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D014867:Water