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Hydraulic redistribution is a passive mechanism where water is transported from moist to dry soils via subterranean networks. [1] It occurs in vascular plants that commonly have roots in both wet and dry soils, especially plants with both taproots that grow vertically down to the water table, and lateral roots that sit close to the surface.
Soil aeration maintains oxygen levels in the plants' root zone, needed for microbial and root respiration, and important to plant growth. Additionally, oxygen levels regulate soil temperatures and play a role in some chemical processes that support the oxidation of elements like Mn 2+ and Fe 2+ that can be toxic.
This shows the net movement of water down its potential energy gradient, from highest water potential in the soil to lowest water potential in the air. [1] The soil-plant-atmosphere continuum (SPAC) is the pathway for water moving from soil through plants to the atmosphere. Continuum in the description highlights the continuous nature of water ...
This is important because plant roots respire (that is, they consume oxygen and carbohydrates while releasing carbon dioxide) and there must be sufficient air—especially oxygen—in the soil to support most forms of soil life. Air normally moves through interconnected pores by forces such as changes in atmospheric pressure, the flushing ...
The amount of porosity in a soil depends on the minerals that make up the soil and on the amount of sorting occurring within the soil structure. For example, a sandy soil will have a larger porosity than a silty sand, because the silt will fill the gaps in between the sand particles.
3- Water moves from the xylem into the mesophyll cells, evaporates from their surfaces and leaves the plant by diffusion through the stomata. In plants, the transpiration stream is the uninterrupted stream of water and solutes which is taken up by the roots and transported via the xylem to the leaves where it evaporates into the air/apoplast ...
Note also the vehicle tracks in the top image with roughly proximate higher temperature readings in the bottom image with an 8 °C. differential. Over time vehicles compact soil structure leading to reduced plant growth, especially when vehicles drive on wet soils. This image reveals that turf can be as cooling as forest.
Roots must seek out water as the unsaturated flow of water in soil can move only at a rate of up to 2.5 cm per day; as a result they are constantly dying and growing as they seek out high concentrations of soil moisture. [71] Insufficient soil moisture, to the point of causing wilting, will cause permanent damage and crop yields will suffer.