Related papers: Root growth and force chains in a granular soil
The root is an important organ of a plant since it is responsible for water and nutrient uptake. Analyzing and modelling variabilities in the geometry and topology of roots can help in assessing the plant's health, understanding its growth…
We investigate certain aspects of the physical mechanisms of root growth in a granular medium and how these roots adapt to changes in water distribution induced by the presence of structural inhomogeneities in the form of solid intrusions.…
Plant root growth is dramatically reduced in compacted soils, affecting the growth of the whole plant. Through a model experiment coupling force and kinematics measurements, we probed the force-growth relationship of a primary root…
The roots of some coastal and wetland trees grow peculiar vertical protrusions, the function of which remains unclear. Here, using computational simulations based on first-principles fluid and sedimentation dynamics, we argue that the…
The water uptake by roots of plants is examined for an ideal situation, with an approximation that resembles plants growing in pots, meaning that the total soil volume is fixed. We propose a coupled water uptake-root growth model. A…
Wind power as clean energy has been widely promoted. However, during the operation of a wind turbine in a mountainous area, a large number of instability phenomena appear in the wind turbine foundation. To study the damage characteristics…
Understanding how growth induces form is a longstanding biological question. Many studies concentrated on the shapes of plant cells, fungi or bacteria. Some others have shown the importance of the mechanical properties of bacterial walls…
The ability of grains to rotate can play a crucial role on the collective behavior of granular media. It has been observed in computer simulations that imposing a torque at the contacts modifies the force chains, making support chains less…
Seismic studies indicate that the Earth's inner core has a complex structure and exhibits a strong elastic anisotropy with a cylindrical symmetry. Among the various models which have been proposed to explain this anisotropy, one class of…
What are the general principles that allow proper growth of a tissue or an organ? A growing leaf is an example of such a system: it increases its area by orders of magnitude, maintaining a proper (usually flat) shape. How can this be…
Mechanical characterizations of plant roots are of primary importance in geophysics and engineering science for implementing mechanical models for the stability of root reinforced-soils, as well as in agronomy and soil science for…
Plant organ outgrowth superficially appears like the continuous mechanical deformation of a sheet of cells. Yet, how precisely cells as individual mechanical entities can act to morph a tissue reliably and efficiently into three dimensions…
Plant morphogenesis relies on dynamic growth deformations at the cell and tissue scales driven by osmotic fluxes. A mechanistic understanding of this phenomenon demands a physical framework that integrates cell imbibition, tissue mechanics,…
Root systems can influence the dynamics of evapotranspiration of water out of a porous medium. The coupling of evapotranspiration remains a key aspect affecting overall root behavior. Predicting the evapotranspiration curve in the presence…
We investigate the effect of a forest of pillars on a granular layer steadily flowing over a rough inclined plane. We quantify experimentally how the steady flow rate of grains is affected by the inter-pillars distance for different layer…
The initial emergence of the primary root from a germinating seed is a pivotal phase that influences a plant's survival. Abiotic factors such as pH, nutrient availability, and soil composition significantly affect root morphology and…
Tip-driven growth processes underlie the development of many plants. To date, tip-driven growth processes have been modelled as an elongating path or series of segments without taking into account lateral expansion during elongation.…
Complex systems have motivated continuing interest from the scientific community, leading to new concepts and methods. Growing systems represent a case of particular interest, as their topological, geometrical, and also dynamical properties…
In a seed plant a pollen tube is a vessel that transports male gamete cells to an ovule to achieve fertilization. It consists of one elongated cell, which exhibits growth oscillations, until it bursts completing its function. Up till now,…
Micropatterned substrates are often used to standardize cell experiments and to quantitatively study the relation between cell shape and function. Moreover, they are increasingly used in combination with traction force microscopy on soft…