Water Transport

Water enters a plant through the hairs on the root, and moves across the root cells into the xylem, which
transports it up and around the plant. That, and solutes are moved around by the xylem and the phloem,
using the root, stem and plant.

Root

The Apoplast and Symplast Pathways

Water enters the root through the root hairs, and then takes one of two paths (apoplast and symplast) to
the xylem vessel.

Soil to root hair[edit]

A root hair is a simple extension of the epidermis of a root cell, and reach into the soil to absorb water. It
exists to increase the surface area and therefore the rate at which water can be absorbed. Some plants
have fungi which act like fine roots, absorbing nutrients from the soil for the plant. Water moves into the
root hair cells because it is moving down a water potential gradient, since a root cell has a relatively low
water potential due to its inorganic ions and organic substances. Water will enter through the membrane
and into the cytoplasm and vacuole.

Root hair to xylem[edit]

From the root hair cells, water again moves down a concentration gradient toward the xylem, and can take
one of three paths - apoplast and symplast and vacoular.
The apoplast pathway is where water takes a route going from cell wall to cell wall, not entering the
cytoplasm at any point. The symplast pathway is where water moves between cytoplasm/vacuoles of
adjacent cells. However, the apoplast pathway can only take water a certain way, near the xylem, the
Casparian strip forms an impenetrable barrier to water in the cell walls, and it must move into the cytoplasm
to continue. This gives the plant control over the ions that enter its xylem vessels, since water must cross a
plasma membrane to get there.The vacoular pathway moves molecules through the vacuoles only of the
plant.

Xylem[edit]
The xylem is constructed of three main elements;

Vessel elements, including tracheids - cells involved in water transport

Fibres - elongated cells with lignified walls that support the plant

Parenchyma cells - normal plant cells, except no chloroplasts.

Xylem vessels[edit]
These vessel elements make up the xylem - and are many elongated cells laid end to end, and are normal
plant cells with their walls strengthened by lignin, a hard strong substance that is impermeable to water,
and is designed to provide structure and strength to the plant. When these plant cells are strengthened by
lignin, the cell inside dies, leaving a space inside. However, in some plasmodesmata, there was no lignin
laid down and these appear as gaps in the xylem vessel, know as pits. These have permeable unthickened
cellulose cell wall.
Thus, a continuous tube is formed, known as the xylem vessel. Xylem vessels are huge They are used to
transport the minerals and water and it provides support to the plant.

Tracheids[edit]
Tracheids are dead cells with lignified walls, but they do not have open ends and thus do not form vessels their ends are tapered. All plants have them, but primitive plants use them as main conducing tissue.

Translocation[edit]
The transport of soluble organic substances (sometimes called assimilates) within a plant is known as
translocation. The solutes are transported in sieve elements, found in the phloem tissues, along with other
as companion cells, parenchyma and fibres.

Components[edit]
Sieve Elements[edit]
Sieve Elements are specialised cells, with few mitochondrion and endoplasmic reticulum, no nucleus or
ribosomes. Where two ends of sieve elements meet, a sieve plate is formed, made from walls of both
elements, with large pores allowing free flow of liquids between them.

Companion Cells[edit]
Companion cells are normal plant cells with high numbers of mitochondria and ribosomes, and have many
plasmodesmata pass through to their neighbouring sieve cell walls, making direct contact between the
cytoplasms of companion cell and sieve element.

Mass Flow[edit]
Mass flow is the theory by which we think solute transport occurs in plants. Any area where sucrose is
produced in a plant is known as a source, and any area where it is taken out (usually, used in respiration) is
known as a sink.

Sucrose is actively transported into the sieve tubes of the phloem at the source (i.e. source),
lowering the water potential inside the sieve and so water enters the tubes via osmosis, creating a
higher pressure inside the sieve tubes at the source.

At the sink, sugars leave the phloem to be used up, increasing the water potential inside the sieve
tubes, so water leaves via osmosis, lowering the pressure inside the sieve tubes.

The result is a pressure gradient between source to sink, pushing sugars to where they're needed.

Evidence[edit]
Supporting evidence

When the phloem is cut, sap oozes out, showing a pressure gradient.

Suitable water potential gradient between leaves and other plants, in theory.

Phloem sap has a high pH, which is to be expected since hydrogen ions are actively transported
out of the cell.

ATP is present in phloem sieve elements in high numbers since it is required for active transport of
hydrogen ions.

Evidence against

Sugar travels to many different sinks.

Sieve plates are a barrier to mass flow.

Doesn't require living cells, but phloem cells are alive.

Transpiration[edit]
Transpiration is the loss of water vapour from the leaves of a plant.

Xylem to leaf[edit]
As water evaporates from the leaf, a constantly occurring process, more water is taken in to replace it. The
removal of water reduces the hydrostatic pressure ( pressure exerted by a liquid). Since this pressure
becomes lower at the top of the xylem vessel than at the bottom,this pressure difference causes water to
move up the xylem vessels, just as in a straw.
This process is known as mass flow - as long with the fact that water molecules move together as a body of
water - aided by water's property of being cohesive, and attracted to the lignin in the walls of the xylem
vessels, known as adhesion.
Once water is in the leaf, it can be lost through the stomata, if there is a concentration gradient that it can
go down, which are small pores in direct contract with the air outside. This process is known as
transpiration.

Root pressure[edit]
Plants can also increase the hydrostatic pressure at the bottom of the vessels, changing the pressure
difference. They do this by cells surrounding the xylem vessels to use active transport to pump solutes
across their membranes and into the xylem, lowering the water potential of the solution in the xylem, thus
drawing in water from the surrounding root cells. The influx of water at the bottom of the xylem increases
the pressure.

Transpiration rate[edit]

A potometer

The rate of transpiration is affected by:

Humidity, which affects the water potential gradient outside the leaf, by making the gradient more
or less steep. Low levels of humidity would cause the gradient to be steep, meaning that transpiration
would increase as water molecules would find it easier to escape the leaves. A high humidity level
would have the opposite effect, reducing the transpiration rate.

Wind speed, which affects the water potential gradient outside the leaf. the faster the speed, the
less humid the area around the leaf becomes, as a result, the water potential gradient would be come
more steep and more evapotranspiration would occur.

Temperature, which makes it easier for water molecules to escape from the leaves (this happens
when it is hot). as temperature increases, the water molecules are able to move more rapidly. The
evaporation rate also increases with temperature. Warm air is also able to hold more moisture than
cold air, meaning that water can diffuse into warm air more easily, and this contributes to the
transpiration rate.

Light, Light stimulates the stomata to open allowing gas exchange for photosynthesis, and as a
side effect this also increases transpiration. This is a problem for some plants as they may lose water
during the day and wilt.

The transpiration rate is measured by a potometer, a device that measures the rate at which a plant stem
takes up water, since measuring transpiration directly is difficult.

Xerophytes[edit]
Xerophytes are plants which have various adaptions (below) to reduce transpiration and thus water loss.

Reduced stomata

Swollen stem, storing water

Swollen leaves to store water

Huge surface area for roots

Leaves reduced to spines (cactus), reducing surface area for water loss

Take in CO2 at night so they can close their stomata in the day to reduce water loss

Thick, waxy water-resistant cuticle on the epidermis to reduce water loss

Sunken stomata (in pits), where water vapour is sheltered from the wind

Hairlike projections, called trichomes, on the leaf surface to reduce the effect of high wind speed