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Wind increases leaf water use efficiency
Author(s) -
Schymanski Stanislaus J.,
Or Dani
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
plant, cell and environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.646
H-Index - 200
eISSN - 1365-3040
pISSN - 0140-7791
DOI - 10.1111/pce.12700
Subject(s) - transpiration , water use efficiency , environmental science , wind speed , atmospheric sciences , carbon dioxide , photosynthesis , carbon dioxide in earth's atmosphere , agronomy , botany , meteorology , biology , ecology , geography , physics
A widespread perception is that, with increasing wind speed, transpiration from plant leaves increases. However, evidence suggests that increasing wind speed enhances carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) uptake while reducing transpiration because of more efficient convective cooling (under high solar radiation loads). We provide theoretical and experimental evidence that leaf water use efficiency (WUE, carbon uptake per water transpired) commonly increases with increasing wind speed, thus improving plants' ability to conserve water during photosynthesis. Our leaf‐scale analysis suggests that the observed global decrease in near‐surface wind speeds could have reduced WUE at a magnitude similar to the increase in WUE attributed to global rise in atmospheric CO 2 concentrations. However, there is indication that the effect of long‐term trends in wind speed on leaf gas exchange may be compensated for by the concurrent reduction in mean leaf sizes. These unintuitive feedbacks between wind, leaf size and water use efficiency call for re‐evaluation of the role of wind in plant water relations and potential re‐interpretation of temporal and geographic trends in leaf sizes.