Hydraulic Viper, a virtual phenotyping pipeline for root hydraulic traits - multiscale approach

Heymans, Adrien [UCL] Couvreur, Valentin [UCL] Meunier, Félicien [ CAVElab-Computational and Applied Vegetation Ecology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium] Lobet, Guillaume [UCL]

Under water limitation, selecting the adequate root architectural features for a specific environment could increase plant performance (Comas et al., 2013). In this respect, optimizing the location of roots in space and time can help but it is the root hydraulic conductivity and the water potential being applied on all points of the root system that determine the amount of water transpirable by the plant. Moreover, root hydraulic conductivity can be a limiting factor along the water pathways between the soil and the leaf. Cell-scale hydraulic properties and anatomical features define the root hydraulic conductivities. Hydraulic properties are usually assumed to be controlled on the short- or medium-term by the plant while structural features are assumed to be long term (Vetterlein and Doussan, 2016). As such, root anatomy defines the baseline for the root radial and axial hydraulic properties. However, quantifying the influence of anatomical features on the hydraulic conductivity remains challenging due to complex and time-consuming experimental procedures. In addition, assessing their impact globally on a root system conductance is even more complicated