15 June, 2019 (Berry, pce, FWU)

Berry, Z.C., Emery, N.C., Gotsch, S.G., Goldsmith, G.R. (2019). Foliar water uptake: Processes, pathways, and integration into plant water budgets. Plant, Cell and Environment, 42, 410-423.

As I saw foliar water uptake (FWU) in alert lists sometimes, I became curious about the process. So I read this paper. FWU was observed about 400 years ago (1727), but it seems like relatively new and immatured field. Some knowledge chunks have been made, but the field lacks many details. Roughly, FWU occurs when leaves are wet, the main gate of water movement is stomata, most of biomes shows this phenomenon, and the amount is up tp 10% of transpiration. But, further studies such as details about water movement, methodologies to observe the pathway, and species-specific physiological responses.

Interesting points are: 1) sap flow measurement can contribute to this field by measuring and quantifying whole-plant scale FWU. Stable isotope method can be applied to track the water movement. Also, hydraulic traits related with the FWU need to be investigated. All these fields are among the interests of my previous lab. So, FWU might be a potential research candidate for the lab (it seems deserved). 2) FWU improves leaf water status when plants suffer drought although it occupies just a small part of the plant water fluxes. This is an important point because drought is one of the major concerns of forest science. FWU may be a game changer for plants during dry condition.