A heat balance method for measuring water flux in the stem of intact plants

This paper describes the method and apparatus for measuring the flow rate of water in intact plant stems, on the basis of heat balance of a stem segment. Under stationary conditions, the heat energy supplied continuously to a segment of plant stem is partitioned into three components such as conduction, mass flow and convection [see Eq. (1)]. By predetermining both heat losses due to conduction in the stem and convection from the segment surface into ambient air, it is possible to evaluate the heat loss due to mass flow of water in the stem, that is, the water flow rate equivalent to the transpiration stream. The water flow rate evaluated by this method is compared with the transpiration loss of water determined directly by weighing potted soybean and sunflower plants and measured by using a chamber method. The comparison shows there is a good agreement between them. This indicates that the newly developed method can be applied for determining transpiration rates of intact plants under laboratory and field conditions.