The Effects of Water Stress on the Enviroment
Water is required for all life processes and often limits plant development. For example, when the grass does not receive sufficient water, its growth slows and ceases long before it starts to look sick and turn brown. Water is required to maintain cell turgidity and to provide a substrate and medium for chemical reactions and for the transport of mineral ions in the plant; also when transpired from the leaves, water is of some value in cooling and maintaining a plant temperature suitable for metabolic reactions. Plants growing in natural environments are often prevented from expressing their full genetic potential for reproduction and are considered stressed. The best way of assessing this potential is by determining plant productivity under conditions that are nonlimiting. One method is to identify the highest yields attained by crops. Corn, for example, yields 4600 kilograms per hectare on average but also has had a record yield of 19,300 kilograms per hectare (Erdei 1998). The effects of water stress on plant growth puts a major limitation on grain yields throughout the world. Silk growth and leaf growth is inhibited under water stress. The major economic consequence of insufficient water on maize and cor
Schoper J.B., R.J. Lambert and B.L. Vasilas. 1986. Maize pollen viability and ear Receptivity under water and high temperature stress. Crop Sci. 26: Corn has a relatively high water requirement. In the central Corn Belt, the amount of water used by the crop, plus that lost by evaporation from the soil surface, generally exceeds normal season rainfall by 3 to 5 inches. This precipitation deficit is offset by water stored in the soil from early season rainfall. During rapid growth in the later vegetative stages of development, a corn plant will use about 0.2 to 0.25 inches of water per day. This may increase to almost 0.33 inches of water per day during pollination. Stress conditions will become evident in the corn plant when 50 percent of the available soil water has been depleted (Schoper 1986). 1029-1033.1987. Plant factors controlling seed set in maize. Plant Phys. 83: 121-125. Drought is considered to be a pre-dominant factor both for determining the global geographic distribution of vegetation and for restricting crop yields in agriculture. Water stress is a limiting factor for a wide range of physiological processes in plants. Water availability is one of the most important determinants of plant growth globally (Herrero 1981).
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1589
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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