Influence of soil type on the wilting of plants

A b s t r a c t. It has been shown that the water remaining in soil when plants wilt due to soil limitations and the residual water content as observed when soils are de-watered in pressure cell apparatus are essentially the same. Both are produced by immiscible displacement of water by air, and this leads to the water remaining in soil not being in thermodynamic equilibrium. Water removal by immiscible displacement ceases when hydraulic cut-off is reached. The point of hydraulic cut-off may be calculated by fitting waterretention data to equations for both the non-equilibrium case and the equilibrium case, and then solving these simultaneously. This has been done for water retention data for 52 soil horizons in Poland. These results are used to obtain a pedotransfer function for the permanent wilting point due to soil limitations and the results are presented for the different soil texture classes. The pore water suction when wilting occurs is estimated to be 1.0 MPa. The methods and findings in this paper are used to explain a range of published results on plant wilting. K e y w o r d s: hydraulic cut-off, pedotransfer function, permanent wilting point, residual water content, water retention