STOMATAL MOVEMENTS AND RATES OF GASEOUS EXCHANGE IN EXCISED LEAVES OF VICIA FABA

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Abstract
Summary: Simultaneous measurements of leaf resistance to gaseous flow, rate of transpiration and rate of carbon dioxide exchange were made with the main object of investigating the effects of severing the petiole on stomatal movements and gaseous exchange of leaves of Vicia faba of differing initial water content.Extensive stomatal changes occurred on cutting the petioles of illuminated leaves in air. The magnitude and direction of the stomatal movements were strongly influenced by the water relations of the leaf at the time of excision. When the water deficit was small there was a substantial temporary stomiatal opening and corresponding temporary increases in rates of transpiration and photosynthesis. In leaves of moderate water deficit the stomatal opening on leaf excision was much less pronounced and, in leaves under severe water stress at he time of cutting, there was little evidence of any immediate stomatal response. Preliminary stomatal opening and a temporary increase in transpiration rate were also observed in leaves excised in air from plants kept in darkness. In experiments in which the illuminated leaves were severed under water, however, a temporary increase of leaf resistance to gaseous flow was found on leaf excision, and associated declines in rates of transpiration and of photosynthesis.The changes in transpiration rate resulting from leaf severance are clearly associated with stomatal behaviour, and there is evidence of close stomatal control, under these conditions, of rates of transpiration and of photosynthesis. The phenomena involved in leaf excision both in air and under water are discussed and stomatal behaviour shown to depend to a considerable extent on the water relations of the leaf; stomatal movements are interpreted largely in terms of differential turgor changes in the guard cells and neighbouring epidermal cells.

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