Fitting rectangles under vulnerability curves: optimal water flow through plants
Optimization and Control
2022-06-27 v1 Quantitative Methods
Abstract
We study an optimization problem for a model of steady state water transport through plants that maximizes water flow subject to the constraints on hydraulic conductance due to vulnerability to embolism (air blockage of conduits). The model has an elementary geometric interpretation, and exhibits bottleneck behavior where one of the plant segments limits the overall optimal flow, sometimes in a counterintuitive way. The results show good agreement with experimental measurements and provide support for the hypothesis that leaves serve as a safety buffer protecting stems against excessive embolism.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1902.05161,
title = {Fitting rectangles under vulnerability curves: optimal water flow through plants},
author = {Sergiy Koshkin and Michael Tobin and Jeffae Schroff and Matt Capobianco and Sarah Oldfield},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1902.05161},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
13 pages, 2 tables, 3 figures