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Annals of Botany 28: 351-368, 1964
© 1964 Annals of Botany Company

RESEARCH-ARTICLE

An Examination of the Refractometric Method for Determining the Water Potential of Plant Tissues

D. F. GAFF and D. J. CARR1

Botany School, University of Melbourne

Some sources of error in refractometric determinations of water potential are examined and methods of correcting for them or avoiding them are discussed, as well as their relevance to Shardakov’s (Schlieren) method. The sources of the exudation from cut tissues, which causes a rise in the refractive index of water and affects that of solutions, are investigated. The exudation consists mainly of sap released from cut and damaged cells. The amount of sap exuded is independent of the concentration of the external solution. A method of estimating the extent of the error thus incurred in water potential determinations is described. Error arising also from the admixture of cell-wall water to the reference solutions, lowering their effective concentration, and other sources of error are briefly described.

A method of eliminating the curvature in graphs of change of refractive index plotted against molarity is suggested. The method permits the data from all concentrations to be used in determining the null point for water exchange, instead of those near to the null point only.


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J. S. Boyer
Isopiestic Technique: Measurement of Accurate Leaf Water Potentials
Science, December 16, 1966; 154(3755): 1459 - 1460.
[Abstract] [PDF]


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