St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

An ecological perspective on water shedding from leaves

Thumbnail
View/Open
Lenz_2021_An_ecological_perspective_JEB_erab479_CCBY.pdf (721.6Kb)
Date
24/02/2022
Author
Lenz, Anne-Kristin
Bauer, Ulrike
Ruxton, Graeme D
Keywords
Drip tips
Drop impact
Epicuticular wax
Leaf inclination angle
Leaf movement
Leaf trait adaptation
Splash erosion
Trichomes
Water repellency
Water shedding
QK Botany
NDAS
Metadata
Show full item record
Altmetrics Handle Statistics
Altmetrics DOI Statistics
Abstract
Water shedding from leaves is a complex process depending on multiple leaf traits interacting with rain, wind and air humidity, and with the entire plant and surrounding vegetation. Here, we synthesise the current knowledge of the physics of water shedding with implications for plant physiology and ecology. We argue that the drop retention angle is a more meaningful parameter to characterise the water shedding capacity of leaves than the commonly measured static contact angle. The understanding of the mechanics of water shedding is largely derived from laboratory experiments on artificial rather than natural surfaces, often on individual aspects such as surface wettability or drop impacts. In contrast, field studies attempting to identify the adaptive value of leaf traits linked to water shedding are largely correlative in nature, with inconclusive results. We make a strong case for taking the hypothesis-driven experimental approach of biomechanical lab studies into a real-world field setting to gain a comprehensive understanding of leaf water shedding in a whole-plant ecological and evolutionary context.
Citation
Lenz , A-K , Bauer , U & Ruxton , G D 2022 , ' An ecological perspective on water shedding from leaves ' , Journal of Experimental Botany , vol. 73 , no. 4 , pp. 1176–1189 . https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erab479
Publication
Journal of Experimental Botany
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erab479
ISSN
0022-0957
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Description
UB is funded by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (UF150138) and Anne-Kristin Lenz is supported by a Royal Society Enhancement Award (RGF/EA/180059) held by UB.
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/24726

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter