Plant Physiology

Transpiration
LABORATORY 07
Announcements
•First dissection next week
• BRING DISSECTION KIT
• Wear lab appropriate attire
•Be careful with short response questions on tests
• Be concise
• Make sure you understand different between null and
alternative hypothesis
• Proofread
 Insect of the Week!
Halloween Pennant
◦ Celithemis eponia
◦ Aquatic and terrestrial life
stages
◦ Found from Rockies to Eastern
seaboard and from Quebec to
Northern Mexico
◦ Dragonflies voracious
predators -> hunt near waters
edge
◦ Much larger ~300 mya
◦ Over 0.5m!
 Transpiration

http://www.chadburkey.com/images/0129_large.jpg
Leaf Function
•Leaves are the primary photosynthetic organ of plants.
•Stores energy from sun (photons) via capture by pigments and
conversion into glucose
•Photosynthesis
Leaf Cross Section

(plural: Stomata/Stomates)
Stomata Function
•Regulate gas exchange
• Open when conditions are optimal for gas exchange (lots of
light and water)
• Guard cells swell
• Photosynthesis is active -> RuBisCO carboxylates ribulose bisphosphate
• Close when conditions indicate poor conditions
• Guard cells shrink
• Photosynthesis is inactive -> RuBisCO oxygenates ribulose bisphosphate
Stomata

opened closed
 Leaf Adaptations
Physical aspects of leaf design that would reduce water
loss in a dry environment:
◦ Leaf size and shape
◦ Orientation to the sun, color, fuzziness, thickness, water-
proofing
◦ Stomata design and stomata density
◦ Also, metabolic adaptations as CAM (Crassulacean Acid
metabolism)
HYDROPHYTIC LEAF
XEROPHYTIC LEAF
ROLLED LEAF in
XEROPHYTIC PLANT
LAVANDER SHOWING ADAPTATION to
DRY ENVIRONMENTS
CAM
•CAM -> metabolic adaptation
• Crassulacean acid metabolism

•Temporally separates
photosynthesis
• Stomata open during night and
CO2 converted into “storage form”
• Stored CO2 is then converted back
into CO2 for use in photosynthesis
during the day when light is
available
•First discovered in Crassulaceae
C4
•C4
•Physiological adaptation that
segregates photosynthesis in
space
•More efficiently uses RuBiSCO by
sequestering it in a CO2 rich
environment
• In C3 plants RuBiSCO can
“accidentally” fix O2 as well as CO2
• Adaptive for warm arid
environments
Transpiration
Today . . .
• We will study
transpiration plants
• It is possible to measure
the rate of transpiration
using a device called a
potometer.
• Transpiration rate is
measured as ml H2O per
unit time

http://www.phschool.com/science/biology_place/labbench/lab9/design.html
HOW the POTOMETER WORKS?

This device allows the placement Water reservoir
of a plant stem in a reservoir of
water


As the plant transpires, the water
level in the reservoir decreases
Procedure
PROCEDURE
1.Beginning with the plunger
of the syringe depressed,
submerge your potometer
into a tub of water.
2.Pull back the plunger to fill
the entire apparatus with
water (WATCH OUT FOR AIR
BUBBLES).
PROCEDURE
3. Cut a leaf off of a Coleus plant
near the stem.
4. Submerge the end of the stem
in water and cut it again with
a razor blade. This prevents air
bubbles from entering the Sprout
xylem and interrupting the
flow of water.
5. Insert the stem into the tubing
of the potometer while both
are still submerged.
Cut the stem under
water
Procedure
•Setting everything up can be quite difficult
• Go slowly and take your time after setting everything up, will
only take an hour to complete the lab
• Important to avoid air bubbles as best you can
Procedure
6. Allow the potometer to equilibrate for 5 min.
7. Using the syringe, adjust the water level to 0 ml.
8. Take readings of the water level every 5 minutes for a total of 30
minutes.

Measure the water loss for a period

of 30 minutes (every 5 min.)
EXPERIMENT 7.1

Control-first then experimental condition

Think of alternative hypotheses based on
experimental condition selected for
 Don’t put light too
close to leaf or you
will burn the leaf

Record data in
Table 2 (Trial 2)
Page 95

Measure transpiration (30 min)

Expose sprout to bright light
(30 min.)

OR
Expose sprout to wind
(30 min.)
 Stomatal Densities
• Make stoma casts using fingernail polish.
• Take a portion of your leaf
• Examine the density on the upper and lower
surface of leaves. Are they the same?
• Estimate the percent of stomata that are
open on each side of the leaf.
Stomal densities
•Different parts of the plant are likely to have different
stomal densities
• Underside (abaxial) will typically have more
• Top-side is more “risky”

•Different environments have different stomal densities

• Aquatic plants usually have higher stomal densities
relative to land plants
 PROCEDURE
STEP 1 STEP 2

http://www.classtech2000.com/toucan/modules/stomata/student.htm
Brush a thin layer of clear nail Allow this to dry for several minutes
polish on the leaf surface.
STEP 3 STEP 4

All the pictures by Karin Westerling:

Use a piece of tape to gently lift the nail Place the tape on a slide and
polish from the surface of the leaf observe under the microscope.
To-do
•Take leaf measurements
• Just draw, do calc. while experiment is going on
•Set up potometer -> begin control
• Immediately after start the experimental group
•Can work on the post-lab test will taking
measurements
•DO NOT do the stomal density experiment
Homework
•Quiz 8
•Test 7
• Give me data and I’ll distribute to class
• If data looks bad, I’ll give a different dataset

•PackBack