Physiological Response of Plants Grown on Porous Ceramic Tubes

This research involves the manipulation of the root-zone water potential for the purposes of discriminating the rate limiting step in the inorganic nutrient uptake mechanism utilized by higher plants. This reaction sequence includes the pathways controlled by the root-zone conditions such as water tension and gradient concentrations. Furthermore, plant based control mechanisms dictated by various protein productions are differentiated as well. For the nutrients limited by the environmental availability, the kinetics were modeled using convection and diffusion equations. Alternatively, for the nutrients dependent upon enzyme manipulations, the uptakes are modeled using Michaelis-Menten kinetics. In order to differentiate between these various mechanistic steps, an experimental apparatus known as the Porous Ceramic Tube - Nutrient Delivery System (PCT-NDS) was used. Manipulation of the applied suction pressure circulating a nutrient solution through this system imposes a change in the matric component of the water potential. This compensates for the different osmotic components of water potential dictated by nutrient concentration. By maintaining this control over the root-zone conditions, the rate limiting steps in the uptake of the essential nutrients into tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum cv. Cherry Elite) were differentiated. Results showed that the uptake of some nutrients were mass transfer limited while others were limited by the enzyme kinetics. Each of these were adequately modeled with calculations and discussions of the parameter estimations provided.