What is transpiration?

What is transpiration?

Transpiration (Et) is the lose of water in form of vapor from the leaves surface. It is an inseparable link made by plants between soil, water and the atmosphere.

Everyday when sun rises, trees, shrubs, and herbs start extracting water from soil. Thanks to this activity soil water and nutrients, CO2, and sun light are used (process known as photosynthesis activity) to built new green fabrics (new leaves, branches), new food (forage, vegetables), industrial chemicals and products (plant fibers, resins, tannins, medicines, vitamins, colorants, biofuels, etc), as well as new life for universal life continuity (seeds).

Besides, Et regulates (=improves) local weather and it seems to help in reducing effects of either atypical or due to human activities extreme climate processes, including those related to the eventually occurring global warming change.

Researchers studying Et

Researchers studying plant Et

In Mexican Forests
Todd Dawson (University of California; Berkeley)
Greg Goldsmith (University of California; Berkeley)
Heidi Asbjornsen (Iowa State University)
Martin Gomez Cardenas (Iowa State University)


In Australian forests
Stephen S. O. Burgess (The University of Western Australia)
Timothy M. Bleby (The University of Western Australia)

Transpiration in Mexican forests

Transpiration in Mexican forests is almost completely unknown, except by some recent studies carried out for the cloud forest located in the Eastern Sierra Madre (Holwerda et al. 2007, Gomez-Cardenas et al. 2008)

Daily Et for the cold-dry season is 1.055 mm
Daily Et for the warm-dry season is 1.288 mm
Daily Et for the warm-rainy season is 0.905 mm
Daily Et average is 1.083 mm
Annual Et is 395.5 mm