Are plants wasting water in the dark?

本项目旨在测量具有重要经济意义的物种在黑暗中对水蒸气的气孔导度，以了解气孔导度在黑暗中是如何调节的，及其适应意义。大多数植物的叶子在黑暗中继续失去水分，因为气孔保持开放。 在黑暗中不能发生光合固碳，因此水分利用效率降低，这种降低影响作物产量、森林生长、集水产量和气候反馈。 现有的气孔导度的机械模型将被扩展到包括在黑暗中的响应，并旨在用于预测减少潜在的白天水分损失（这是耦合到碳增益）由于作物和森林的夜间气孔导度。

This project aims to measure stomatal conductance to water vapour in the dark in economically important species to understand how conductance is regulated in the dark, and its adaptive significance. Leaves of most plants continue to lose water in the dark because stomata remain open. No photosynthetic carbon fixation can occur in the dark so water-use efficiency is reduced, and this reduction influences crop yield, forest growth, catchment water yield and climate feedback. Existing mechanistic models of stomatal conductance will be extended to include responses in the dark, and aim to be used to predict the reduction in potential daytime water loss (which is coupled to carbon gain) due to nocturnal stomatal conductance for crops and forests.