Modeling Foliar Uptake in Colocasia Esculenta Using High Resolution Maps of Leaf Water Isotopes

Abstract:

The uptake of carbon dioxide by vegetation is a major sink of CO₂ and a factor that will determine future climate. Some studies predict a decrease in CO₂ uptake from vegetation because of a general drying of the Amazon Basin. Because of the tight linkage between water availability and plant carbon uptake, a comprehensive model of plant water use at the individual scale is necessary to build a complete carbon budget at the global scale. Foliar uptake of non-meteoric water is a common process used by plants to alleviate water stress. However the occurrence of this process in tropical ecosystems, as well as its interaction with other physiological parameters, is not well understood. We present a model of leaf water balance that includes foliar uptake. The isotopic composition of the different sources as well as the leaf water are also included. The model is tested against a series of experiments on Colocasia esculenta, under two different water availability conditions: drought and artificial dew. The artificial dew is spiked with stable isotopes of water (δ¹⁸O = 8.56 permil, δ²H = 709.7 permil) that allow us to trace the partition of dew uptake within a leaf. We create high-resolution maps of the distribution of isotopes in one half of each leaf using a Picarro IM-CRDS. The maps show a clear enrichment due to foliar uptake for the artificial dew treatment. The water in the second half of the leaf is extracted by cryogenic extraction and analyzed using both IRIS and IRMS for quality control of the IM-CRDS data. Soil water is collected for isotope analysis and water content measurement. Finally, stomatal conductance data collected every two days shows no significant decrease due to either treatment over the course of the experiment. We conclude that foliar uptake of dew water is an important water acquisition mechanism for C. esculenta, even under high soil water content conditions, and we propose guidelines for further improvement of models of leaf-scale water balance.