How Light and Wind Affect the Rate of Plant Transpiration

Introduction: The purpose of this experiment is to determine if transpiration rate of plants can be increased by light and wind. One of the biggest problems that terrestrial plants must address is to avoid moisture loss and drying (Whiting, 2011). Transpiration is the loss of water vapor through the pores (Xu et al. 1995). Transpiration occurs through leaf pores, sometimes in flowers (Vodopich and R. Moore, 2011). During transpiration, the water from the roots is drawn through the plant (Xu et al.

Transpiration is the most biological process occurring during the day. Water in the plant travels from the plant to the atmosphere as water vapor through several separate openings. The plant evaporates and moves nutrients to the top of the plant and cools the leaves exposed to the sun. Leaves that experience rapid transpiration can be considerably colder than the surrounding air. Plant species in soil have a great influence on transpiration and are strongly influenced by the amount of light the plant is exposed to. Plants freely evaporate water until the deficiency of water occurs in plants and cells (pores) which release water begin to close. Evaporation then continues at a slower rate. Only a small part of the water absorbed by the plants remains in the plant

Wind and air movement: Increasing air movement around plants increases transpiration speed. This is somewhat related to the relative humidity of the air as water saturates the air around the leaves as water evaporates from the leaves. If there is no wind, the air around the leaves does not move too much and the humidity of the air around the leaves rises. The wind moves the air, so that the more saturated air near the leaves is replaced by the more dry air.

In this experiment, we compared transpiration rates of specific plants when various environmental factors were applied. The potentiometer measures the water loss of the four plants. The control factor in this experiment was an indoor plant (normal condition). Part of the experiment included blowing a fan on one of the plants. Questions 2 and 3 explain the influence and cause of transpiration rate against transpiration rate. Fan experiments showed that transpiration rate increases when blowing air compared to control. The air increases the transpiration rate as air molecules are washed off by moist exposed air and are easily carried away from the leaves. The use of light as an experimental part of the factor increases photosynthetic rate in plants. This leads to a greater amount of transpiration than the control. As a result, the transpiration rate decreases, which is lower than the control.