Plants and the environment - Gauging plant thirst

Presented by Dr Michael Roderick, Dr Michael Hobbins & Dr Chin Wong
Environmental Biology Group

Plants are thirsty organisms. A grass covered football field (~ 1 ha) will typically transpire of the order of 50,000 litres of water on a summer day. We know the amount because we can estimate it. Transpiration is a biological process of widespread significance, e.g., in agriculture, water yield from catchments, the surface energy balance, climate change and the enhanced greenhouse effect, etc. Changes in transpiration, especially with increasing CO2 are of worldwide interest because transpiration is very sensitive to the CO2 content of the air.

In this session, students will be taken to the RSBS pan evaporation facility at Canberra airport and given an overview of research into plant-environment interactions with special reference to plant water use and climate change.

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