INTRODUCTION

Plants, like animals, need a source of energy in order to carry on activities critical for their existence. In plants this source of energy is acquired via the process of photosynthesis, a process in which carbon dioxide and water are synthesized, with the help of light as an energy source, into (1) carbohydrates, which provide organic material crucial for the plant's life, and (2) oxygen, which is transpired outside of the plant. In the aforementioned process, three necessary participants, carbon dioxide, oxygen and water, are exchanged between the outer and inner environment of the plant via stomata (singular: stoma), small pores on the epidermis of the plant. These stomata also participate in the process of transpiration. Transpiration is the process of water evaporation, primarily from the leaves, when the stomata are open for gas exchangement during photosynthesis. However, due to plant transpiration, the water loss from the plant also attributes to a difference between the concentration levels in the ground versus the plant, therefore in turn leading to an increase in water absorption through the roots that cause an increase in turgor pressure in the plant. The transpiration rate in a plant can be affected by five different environmental factors: (1) temperature (2) light (3) humidity (4) wind (5) water absorption rate from the soil. The reasons for these factors' effect are explained as follows: (1) Temperature: The transpiration rate in a plant increases with an increase in temperature because water evaporates at a faster pace at higher temperatures. (2) Light: The transpiration rate in a plant is faster in the light versus the dark due to the fact that light causes the opening of the stomata, as well as the fact that light causes the heating up of the plant (see: temperature effect) (3) Humidity: The transpiration rate in a plant decreases when the air is moister due to the difference in concentration levels between the surrounding air and the plant, causing diffusion's natural course of action to occur between the plant and the surrounding air. (4) Wind: In contrast to the presence of humidity in the air, wind removes humid air that may have settled on the plant and replaces it with drier air, causing an effect in opposition to the presence of humidity's effect: an increase in the transpiration rate. (5) Water absorption rate from the soil: If the rate of water absorption

from the roots in the ground fails to keep up with the transpiration rate, the transpiration rate decreases due to subsequential loss of turgor, that therefore is followed up by the closing up of the stomata. To summarize, the materials that the plant exchanges between its environment, via the stomata, are what enable the necessary processes of plant respiration and photosynthesis to occur; these materials being the gasses, oxygen and carbon dioxide, and water. However, it's important to note that the stomata are not constantly open. If this were the case, great loss of water would occur simultaneously to the collection of gasses. The ensuing question, therefore, is where the greater preference lies: absorption of the gasses imperitive to commence the aforementioned necessary processes, or maintenence of water in the plant, also a definite necessity. Now, of course, a plant cannot make a conscious decision as to its preference, but rather an evolved mechanism takes care of the issue and regulates the two previously mentioned occurences. However, to truly understand this mechanism's work manner, one must familiarize with the broadened process of how water initially arrives in the plant and why the plant loses this water (= transpiration): As a result of a difference in concentration levels between the plant root cells and the soil, osmosis occurs and water trevels and spreads from the roots to the plant in whole, reaching every single cell. Under each stoma rests a space, with some air in it, surrounded by other cells, and this space is the "stoma room". Here water vapor gets diffused from the surrounding cells to the space of air they enclose. When the stoma is closed, that enclosed space's air gets very humid; when this happens the increased turgor pressure on the stoma results in its opening, causing this humid air to escape to the drier air outside. (The stoma is built of two closed cells. When water penetrates to these closed cells the turgor pressure rises, resulting in minor swelling of the closed cells and a stretching of their walls. However, the inner walls of these stomata (that form the opening

when the stoma is open) are thicker and therefore are more lacking of elasticity. This aids in having only the outer stoma walls stretch and form into a bow shape, hence forming the typical stoma shape when it is open.) Therefore, weaker turgor pressure application on the stomata is an indication of a shorter supply of water present in the plant, thus causing the cell walls to retreat to their original closed shape, preventing an inecessary and potentially dangerous escape of water from the plant through the stomata. The experiment performed in class, that is more broadly described further on, consisted of the placement of a certain plant in water with varying salt concentrations. The purpose was to test effect #5 that is mentioned above; how will these different concentrations, that should affect the water absorbtion rate, affect the transpiration rate. Through prior research on the subject of transpiration, the hypothesis became quite clear. The rate of water absorption indeniably affects the transpiration rate. Since the varying salt concentration solutions will cause a difference in the absorption rates (the higher the concentration the lower the absorption rate due to osmosis's natural course of action, where equality of concentrations is reached via transfer of water between a membrane), performance of this experiment will cause the respective differences in the transpiration rates between the varying salt concentration solutions.

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