MOVEMENT OF GASES AND WATER IN VASCULAR PLANTS

 

The Leaf

Although chloroplasts are found in the cells of young stems and immature fruits, leaves are the real photosynthetic factories of the plant.

A cross section through the blade of a typical leaf reveals 4 distinct tissue layers.

  1. Upper epidermis. This is a single layer of cells containing few or no chloroplasts. The cells are quite transparent and permit most of the light that strikes them to pass through to the underlying cells. The upper surface is covered with a waxy, waterproof cuticle, which serves to reduce water loss from the leaf.
  2. Palisade layer. This consists of one or more layers of cylindrical cells oriented with their long axis perpendicular to the plane of the leaf. The cells are filled with chloroplasts (usually several dozen of them) and carry on most of the photosynthesis in the leaf.
  3. Spongy layer. Lying beneath the palisade layer, its cells are irregular in shape and loosely packed. Although they contain a few chloroplasts, their main function seems to be the temporary storage of sugars and amino acids synthesized in the palisade layer. They also aid in the exchange of gases between the leaf and the environment. During the day, these cells give off oxygen and water vapor to the air spaces that surround them. They also pick up carbon dioxide from the air spaces. The air spaces are interconnected and eventually open to the outside through pores called stomata (sing., stoma).
  4. Lower epidermis. Typically. most of the stomata (thousands per square centimeter) are located in the lower epidermis. Although most of the cells of the lower epidermis resemble those of the upper epidermis, each stoma is flanked by two sausage-shaped cells called guard cells. These differ from the other cells of the lower epidermis not only in their shape but also in having chloroplasts. The guard cells regulate the opening and closing of the stomata. Thus they control the exchange of gases between the leaf and the surrounding atmosphere.

Stomata under microscope

taken from http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/articles/stomata.html

Diagram of stomata

taken from http://www.puc.edu/Faculty/Gilbert_Muth/art0077.jpg

Leaf Veins

Not only must the cells of the palisade and spongy layers be close to their air supply

but they must be close to a leaf vein with its

The photo shows the network of leaf veins in a maple leaf. Probably no cell in the spongy layer is more than two cells away from a vein.

The xylem and phloem of veins is often surrounded by layers of sclerenchyma cells. These impart strength to the vein providing a stiff framework to support the soft tissues of the leaf blade.

Gas Exchange in Plants

In order to carry on photosynthesis, green plants need a supply of carbon dioxide and a means of disposing of oxygen. In order to carry on cellular respiration, plant cells need oxygen and a means of disposing of carbon dioxide (just as animal cells do).

Unlike animals, plants have no specialized organs for gas exchange (with the few inevitable exceptions!). The are several reasons they can get along without them:

Leaves

The exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the leaf (as well as the loss of water vapor in transpiration) occurs through pores called stomata (singular = stoma).

Normally stomata open when the light strikes the leaf in the morning and close during the night.

The immediate cause is a change in the turgor of the guard cells. The inner wall of each guard cell is thick and elastic. When turgor develops within the two guard cells flanking each stoma, the thin outer walls bulge out and force the inner walls into a crescent shape. This opens the stoma. When the guard cells lose turgor, the elastic inner walls regain their original shape and the stoma closes.

Time

Osmotic Pressure, lb/in2

7 A.M.

212

11 A.M.

456

5 P.M.

272

12 midnight

191

The table shows the osmotic pressure measured at different times of day in typical guard cells. The osmotic pressure within the other cells of the lower epidermis remained constant at 150 lb/in2. When the osmotic pressure of the guard cells became greater than that of the surrounding cells, the stomata opened. In the evening, when the osmotic pressure of the guard cells dropped to nearly that of the surrounding cells, the stomata closed.

Opening stomata

The increase in osmotic pressure in the guard cells is caused by an uptake of potassium ions (K+). The concentration of K+ in open

guard cells far exceeds that in the surrounding cells. This is how it accumulates:

Closing stomata

Although open stomata are essential for photosynthesis, they also expose the plant to the risk of losing water through transpiration. Some 90% of the water taken up by a plant is lost in transpiration.

Abscisic acid (ABA) is the hormone that triggers closing of the stomata when soil water is insufficient to keep up with transpiration (which often occurs around mid-day).

The mechanism:

Density of stomata

The density of stomata on a leaf varies with such factors as:

These data can be quantified by determining the stomatal index: the ratio of the number of stomata in a given area divided by the total number of stomata and other epidermal cells in that same area.

How does the plant determine how many stomata to produce?

It turns out that the mature leaves on the plant detect the conditions around them and send a signal (its nature still unknown) that adjusts the number of stomata that will form on the developing leaves.

Two experiments (reported by Lake et al., in Nature, 411:154, 10 May 2001):

Stomata reveal past carbon dioxide levels

Because CO2 levels and stomatal index are inversely related, could fossil leaves tell us about past levels of CO2 in the atmosphere? Yes. As reported by Gregory Retallack (in Nature, 411:287, 17 May 2001), his study of the fossil leaves of the ginkgo and its relatives shows:

Both these periods are known from geological evidence to have been times of

These studies also lend support to the importance of carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas playing an important role in global warming.

Roots and Stems

Woody stems and mature roots are sheathed in layers of dead cork cells impregnated with suberin — a waxy, waterproof (and airproof) substance. So cork is as impervious to oxygen and carbon dioxide as it is to water.

However, the cork of both mature roots and woody stems is perforated by nonsuberized pores called lenticels. These enable oxygen to reach the intercellular spaces of the interior tissues and carbon dioxide to be released to the atmosphere.

The photo shows the lenticels in the bark of a young stem.

In many annual plants, the stems are green and almost as important for photosynthesis as the leaves. These stems use stomata rather than lenticels for gas exchange.


Transpiration

Transpiration is the evaporation of water from plants. It occurs chiefly at the leaves while their stomata are open for the passage of CO2 and O2 during photosynthesis.

But air that is not fully saturated with water vapor (100% relative humidity) will dry the surfaces of cells with which it comes in contact. So the photosynthesizing leaf loses substantial amount of water by evaporation. This transpired water must be replaced by the transport of more water from the soil to the leaves through the xylem of the roots and stem.

Importance

Transpiration is not simply a hazard of plant life. It is the "engine" that pulls water up from the roots to:

Environmental factors that affect the rate of transpiration

1. Light
Plants transpire more rapidly in the light than in the dark. This is largely because light stimulates the opening of the stomata (mechanism). Light also speeds up transpiration by warming the leaf.

2. Temperature
Plants transpire more rapidly at higher temperatures because water evaporates more rapidly as the temperature rises. At 30°C, a leaf may transpire three times as fast as it does at 20°C.

3. Humidity
The rate of diffusion of any substance increases as the difference in concentration of the substances in the two regions increases. When the surrounding air is dry, diffusion of water out of the leaf goes on more rapidly.

4. Wind
When there is no breeze, the air surrounding a leaf becomes increasingly humid thus reducing the rate of transpiration. When a breeze is present, the humid air is carried away and replaced by drier air.

5. Soil water
A plant cannot continue to transpire rapidly if its water loss is not made up by replacement from the soil. When absorption of water by the roots fails to keep up with the rate of transpiration, loss of turgor occurs, and the stomata close. This immediately reduces the rate of transpiration (as well as of photosynthesis). If the loss of turgor extends to the rest of the leaf and stem, the plant wilts.

The volume of water lost in transpiration can be very high. It has been estimated that over the growing season, one acre of corn plants may transpire 400,000 gallons of water. As liquid water, this would cover the field with a lake 15 inches deep. An acre of forest probably does even better.

 

Transport of Water and Minerals in Plants

Most plants secure the water and minerals they need from their roots.

The path taken is: soil -> roots -> stems -> leaves

The minerals (e.g., K+, Ca2+) travel dissolved in the water (often accompanied by various organic molecules supplied by root cells).

Less than 1% of the water reaching the leaves is used in photosynthesis and plant growth. Most of it is lost in transpiration.

However, transpiration does serve two useful functions:

Water and minerals enter the root by separate paths which eventually converge in the stele.

 

The Pathway of Water

Soil water enters the root through its epidermis. It appears that water then travels in both

However, the inner boundary of the cortex, the endodermis, is impervious to water because of a band of suberized matrix called the casparian strip. Therefore, to enter the stele, apoplastic water must enter the symplasm of the endodermal cells. From here it can pass by plasmodesmata into the cells of the stele.

Once inside the stele, water is again free to move between cells as well as through them. In young roots, water enters directly into the xylem vessels and/or tracheids. These are nonliving conduits so are part of the apoplast.

Once in the xylem, water with the minerals that have been deposited in it (as well as occasional organic molecules supplied by the root tissue) move up in the vessels and tracheids.

At any level, the water can leave the xylem and pass laterally to supply the needs of other tissues.

At the leaves, the xylem passes into the petiole and then into the veins of the leaf. Water leaves the finest veins and enters the cells of the spongy and palisade layers. Here some of the water may be used in metabolism, but most is lost in transpiration.

 

The Pathway of Minerals

Minerals enter the root by active transport into the symplast of epidermal cells and move toward and into the stele through the plasmodesmata connecting the cells.

They enter the water in the xylem from the cells of the pericycle (as well as of parenchyma cells surrounding the xylem) through specialized transmembrane channels.

 

What Forces Water Through the Xylem?

Observations

 

In 1895, the Irish plant physiologists H. H. Dixon and J. Joly proposed that water is pulled up the plant by tension (negative pressure) from above.

As we have seen, water is continually being lost from leaves by transpiration. Dixon and Joly believed that the loss of water in the leaves exerts a pull on the water in the xylem ducts and draws more water into the leaf.

But even the best vacuum pump can pull water up to a height of only 34 ft or so. This is because a column of water that high exerts a pressure (~15 lb/in2) just counterbalanced by the pressure of the atmosphere. How can water be drawn to the top of a sequoia (the tallest is 370 feet high)? Taking all factors into account, a pull of at least 270 lb/in2 is probably needed.

The answer to the dilemma lies the cohesion of water molecules; that is the property of water molecules to cling to each through the hydrogen bonds they form.

When water is confined to tubes of very small bore, the force of cohesion between water molecules imparts great strength to the column of water. Tensions as great as 3000 lb/in2 are needed to break the column, about the value needed to break steel wires of the same diameter. In a sense, the cohesion of water molecules gives them the physical properties of solid wires.

Because of the critical role of cohesion, the transpiration-pull theory is also called the cohesion theory.

Some support for the theory

The graph shows the results of obtained by D. T. MacDougall when he made continuous measurements of the diameter of a Monterey pine. The diameter fluctuated on a daily basis reaching its minimum when the rate of transpiration reached its maximum (around noon)

If forced to take water from a sealed container, the vine does so without any decrease in rate, even though the resulting vacuum becomes so great that the remaining water begins to boil spontaneously. (The boiling temperature of water decreases as the air pressure over the water decreases, which is why it takes longer to boil an egg in Denver than in New Orleans.)

Problems with the theory

When water is placed under a high vacuum, any dissolved gases come out of solution as bubbles (as we saw above with the rattan vine). This is called cavitation. Any impurities in the water enhance the process. So measurements showing the high tensile strength of water in capillaries require water of high purity — not the case for sap in the xylem.

So might cavitation break the column of water in the xylem and thus interrupt its flow? Probably not so long as the tension does not greatly exceed 270 lb/in2.

By spinning branches in a centrifuge, it has been shown that water in the xylem avoids cavitation at negative pressures exceeding 225 lb/in2. And the fact that sequoias can successfully lift water 358 ft (109 m) — which would require a tension of 270 lb/in2 — indicates that cavitation is avoided even at that value.

However, such heights may be approaching the limit for xylem transport. (The tallest tree ever measured, a Douglas fir, was 413 ft. high.) Measurements close to the top of the tallest living sequoia (370 ft high) show that the high tensions needed to get water up there have resulted in:

(See Koch, G. W. et al., Nature, 22 April 2004.)

 

Root Pressure

When a tomato plant is carefully severed close to the base of the stem, sap oozes from the stump. The fluid comes out under pressure which is called root pressure.

Root pressure is created by the osmotic pressure of xylem sap which is, in turn, created by dissolved

that have been actively transported into the apoplast of the stele.

One important example is the sugar maple when, in very early spring, it hydrolyzes the starches stored in its roots into sugar. This causes water to pass by osmosis through the endodermis and into the xylem ducts. The continuous inflow forces the sap up the ducts.

Although root pressure plays a role in the transport of water in the xylem in some plants and in some seasons, it does not account for most water transport.

So although root pressure may play a significant role in water transport in certain species (e.g., the coconut palm) or at certain times, most plants meet their needs by transpiration-pull.


Adapted from Kimball's Biology Pages: http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages