A4.

16S

Student

Activity 4.16 Water transport in plants

Purpose

To explain the role of xylem vessels and transpiration

in the movement of water through a plant.

Xylem and water transport

Work through the interactive tutorial that accompanies this activity and read the section
on water transport in plants in the textbook before completing the task below.

Task
Write a short passage (around 100 words) explaining how water moves through a plant,
highlighting the role of xylem vessels. (It may be easiest to start with transpiration from
the leaves.) Ensure that you have explained what is happening at each of the places
numbered on the plant in Figure 1. Use the list of key words below Figure 1 in your
account.

xylem

cohesion

hydrogen bond

diffusion

stomata

cell walls

substomatal cavity

transpiration

evaporation

capillary action

lignin

Salters-Nuffield Advanced Biology, Pearson Education Ltd 2008. University of York Science Education Group.
This sheet may have been altered from the original.

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A4.16S

Activity 4.16 Water transport in plants

Water loss in plants

The majority of the mass of a plant is water.
Water helps support the plant, particularly
in non-woody plants. It also maintains the
shape of the plant. Wilting, for example, is
caused when the plant cells lose water to the
point where they cannot hold their shape
and the plant collapses.

Student

You need
Tree with a trunk about the same diameter
as a street light
Datalogger and sensors (force, temperature
and light)
Bungee cord or steel spring

A tree loses many litres of water per hour in transpiration. You can check out how much
might be lost by doing a transpirometer experiment. Does this water loss produce a
change in the trunk dimensions (girth)?
It should be possible to measure any change in size of the plant. The difficulty is that the
changes are very small and fall outside the accuracy of many conventional measuring
instruments (e.g. rulers). This experiment uses a force sensor to measure the changes in
size of a tree trunk.

Safety
The springs or bungees may be under high tension. Care should
be taken when connecting and disconnecting.
Procedure
1

Set up the apparatus as shown in Figure 1. The spring/bungee cord should be

positioned around the trunk and attached to the force sensor.

spring/bungee
cord

trunk

force sensor

Figure 1 Measuring the girth of a tree trunk.

2 Connect the sensor to the datalogger with a long cord (1.5 m or longer). This
enables the sensor to be placed away from the trunk.
3 Select the appropriate function on the logger and start recording. If appropriate
sensors are available, record other environmental conditions at the same time, for
example light and temperature.
Salters-Nuffield Advanced Biology, Pearson Education Ltd 2008. University of York Science Education Group.
This sheet may have been altered from the original.

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Activity 4.16 Water transport in plants

A4.16S

Student

Check that data are being collected. Place the logger in a polythene bag
and place it somewhere secure for the datalogging period. It is best not to place
the unit directly on the ground; this helps to reduce the chances of rain getting
into the bag.
5 The data should be collected over a 3-day period.

Analysing the results

Download the data from the logger.
Produce a trace from the data. The axis will need to be adjusted as the changes in
force are very small.

Questions
Q1

Describe any patterns in the data.

Q2

Relate any patterns observed to changes in environmental conditions that have

occurred over the same period.

Q3

Explain why the change in size takes place. Think of what is happening within the plant
at a cellular level.

Q4

How much did the girth of the tree change? (You will need to produce a calibration of
force against distance.)

Q5

The changes in force measured by the spring may be due to the effect of temperature
on the spring. Suggest a control that could be used to check if this is the case.

Salters-Nuffield Advanced Biology, Pearson Education Ltd 2008. University of York Science Education Group.
This sheet may have been altered from the original.

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