Talk:Water-use efficiency

Rewrite of article on Water-use efficiency

I would like to propose a rewrite of this article, as it contains a wrong definition, few citations and could be much more detailed. Water-use efficiency is NOT the ratio between water used in plant metabolism to water lost by the plant through transpiration, but the ratio between biomass accumulation and water lost. As already stated, this can be defined at difference levels (whole plant, leaf, canopy, crop field, ecosystem), and will result in slightly different names, however the list is quite incomplete.

I'm very new to editing in Wikipedia, and I don't want to seem impolite to people who have written and edited this article. So I would first like to get some feedback before starting editing. Given the authors that have already edited this page and the information on their homepage, feedback from @Diogenes2205:, @Headbomb: and @Mwtoews: might be helpful for me, thanks in advance.

A starting point might be something similar to the following text (retaining the overall structure) :

Water-use efficiency (WUE) refers to the ratio of plant biomass accumulated to water lost by the plant through transpiration over a defined time period. WUE can be defined at different levels, in terms of time and spatial integration.

the most basic definition is plant dry biomass [g] divided by transpired water [kg]. This is often called Transpiration Efficiency, but there is no standardisation of terms in the literature, other terms are water-use efficiency of productivity or integrated water-use efficiency
at the leaf level :
- instantaneous water-use efficiency (also called photosynthetic water-use efficiency) is defined as the ratio of net CO2 assimilation rate to transpiration rate
- intrinsic water-use efficiency is defined as the ratio of net CO2 assimilation rate (photosynthesis) to Stomatal conductance for water vapour

Increases in water-use efficiency are commonly cited as a response mechanism of plants to moderate to severe soil water deficits, and has been the focus of many programs that seek to increase crop tolerance of drought. However, there is some question as to the benefit of increased water-use efficiency of plants in agricultural systems, as the processes of increased yield production and decreased transpirational water loss (that is, the main driver of increases in water-use efficiency) are fundamentally opposed.^[1]^[2]. If there existed a situation where water deficit induced lower transpirational rates without simultaneously decreasing photosynthetic rates and biomass production, then water-use efficiency would be both greatly improved and a desired trait in crop production.

References

^ Bacon, M. Water Use Efficiency in Plant Biology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2004. ISBN 1-4051-1434-7. Print.
^ Blum, A (2009). "Effective use of water (EUW) and not water-use efficiency (WUE) is the target of crop yield improvement under drought stress". Field Crops Research. 112: 119–123. doi:10.1016/j.fcr.2009.03.009. ISSN 0378-4290.

--Olbran (talk) 16:07, 15 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I have edited and added several citations

I don't know if this is sufficient to remove the {{more citations needed|date=September 2014}} tag ? Olbran (talk) 15:16, 5 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

[1] Bacon, M. Water Use Efficiency in Plant Biology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2004. ISBN 1-4051-1434-7. Print.

[2] Blum, A (2009). "Effective use of water (EUW) and not water-use efficiency (WUE) is the target of crop yield improvement under drought stress". Field Crops Research. 112: 119–123. doi:10.1016/j.fcr.2009.03.009. ISSN 0378-4290.

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