Question

Explain hydraulic lift and how it can improve drought tolerance of plants.

Answer 1

Hydraulic lift (HL) is the transport of soil water from deep soil layers that is released from shallow roots into upper soil layers, occur during night. widely doccumented in woody plants in deserts, tropical and temperate forests. Drought is an important abiotic stress affecting plants. During drought, HL effectively improve growth of neighbouring vegetation. This lead to competitve interaction among coexisting plants, influencing plant communty strucutre. hence if not only affect individual level but community and landscape level significance persisit. During drought the upper layer of soil is devoid of water , so through hydraulic lift the water from deep soil layer can be used to sustain life of plants. HL is one of the potential mechanism for drought tolerance (example in maize).