Evaluation of Methods for Determination of Relative Transpiration Response to Soil Drying in Container-Grown Plants.

Responses of physiological processess in plants to drought at various fractions of transpirable soil water are often presented relative to well-watered levels of the process . Theoretically, this is method of presentation allows for comparison of relative sensitivity among various physiological processes and across experiments. Uniformity in calculating relative process rates and the fraction of transpirable water at the time of measurement are necessary for making these comparisons. This research evaluates various methods of determining the response of relative transpiration in response to fraction of transpirable soil water and discusses possible inconsistencies in these data as presented in the literature.