Have you ever been watering plants and wondered just how much water was being absorbed by plants? Is the water you’re using to soak your garden even being put to good use by the plants? It turns out, plants contain an extensive system with complicated processes which allows them to “drink” water via osmosis. A little known fact, plants have an inner and outer layer which they use to filter water. Dr. Jetter, a researcher in the department of botany at the University of British Columbia, completed a study that aimed to figure out the function of each of those layers. He did this by examining eight different species of plants and studying the chemistry of each individual inner and outer layer.
Dr. Reinhard Jetter from UBC Department of Botany. Image courtesy of Daryl’s Camera
Our group had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Jetter at the Biological Sciences building where he gave us further insight into his research. When our group first read his paper, we expected similar research had already been completed by scientists at other institutions but surprisingly, that was not the case. In fact, Dr. Jetter told us related research had only been done by one other group of scientists located in Germany in 2001. The video below highlights the most important components of Dr. Jetter’s research and what he found:
https://youtu.be/Ex1gqoDKbEQ
Video – Credit to Dr. Reinhard Jetter, Brian Wong, Daryl Kwok and Ying Yu
Plant cuticles were isolated. Image courtesy of Daryl’s Camera
A specially designed water chamber was used to measure how fast water passes through each layer of cuticles. Image courtesy of Daryl’s Camera
Why is this research significant? Well for one, North America suffered major droughts from 2012-2015 due to record-breaking heat waves. Acres of vegetation died off and as a result, entire ecosystems were disrupted. Additionally, water became an extremely scarce resource and states such as California were so desperate for water, they were buying it from Canada. So what are the nitty-gritty details regarding the composition of how plants control water loss? Furthermore, what are its applications to the general public? We examine this in the podcast below:
Audio – Credit to Dr. Reinhard Jetter, Brian Wong and Ying Yu
Like all studies done in the name of science, there exist limitations. Each individual plant’s chemical components are not analogous, the water-loss barriers will vastly differ within each species. For example, in Dr. Jetter’s study, some plant species had up to 100 times water-loss prevention effectiveness versus other species. This variation is due largely to the interaction between chemical compounds within the plant itself. As a result, it would be an extremely extensive task to accurately record every individual plant species’ ability to control water-loss.
With Dr. Jetter’s research as a basis, huge potential exists in developing technologies that would drastically reduce the negative effects of drought. In the future, if scientists can fully understand and utilize the level of water loss between plant layers, vast farmlands which are highly dependent on weather conditions could be alleviated of disastrous levels of crop loss. Undoubtedly, Dr. Jetter’s research serves as the pioneering basis for a frontier of unspoken possibilities to benefit our great big green planet Earth.
-Group 3: Brian Wong, Daryl Kwok and Ying Yu
