In order to take in carbon dioxide to perform photosynthesis, a plant loses water vapour to the atmosphere as the stomata open. To counteract this, a steady supply of water is needed — hence what’s called the “transpiration paradox.”
Tag Archives Groundwater
How plants conserve moisture in dry conditions
Plants do best when they have a little more moisture than they immediately require
Moving from dry to wet
Improved moisture conditions can mean different strategies
Farmers in Western Canada can breathe easy. Rains across most of the Prairies this spring have gone a long way toward recharging groundwater levels and lowering the risk of drought across the region. “We had an extremely warm winter with lower-than-normal precipitation in most areas,” says Trevor Hadwen, agroclimate specialist for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. […] Read more
Water chemistry: a Coles Notes version
Soils & Crops: Conductivity and hardness of water samples show what you can use it for
First of all: readers who have Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water can check out pages 124-125 for a detailed discussion of water chemistry, complete with calculations. Water is considered to be the universal solvent because it is capable of dissolving more substances than any other liquid. Therefore, one of the first things we might […] Read more
Manitoba cautions on manganese in well water
About a third of wells exceed updated limits, province says
A significant number of wells in Manitoba may be carrying water with manganese levels well above new health standards, particularly for infants. The province on May 3 issued an advisory for owners of private wells that their water “may exceed a new health-based guideline” for the trace element. The element occurs naturally, and commonly, in […] Read more
Les Henry: Water information in Western Canada is flowing nicely
Look to these sources for information on where to find water during dry spells
The past few years, growing-season rain on many Canadian Prairie farms has been much less than needed for a good crop. From 2005 to 2014 high snowfall plus much above-average rainfall provided more than enough moisture for crop growth. The excess rain and snow filled the soil and raised the water table by as much […] Read more
Les Henry: A pretty little slough, a picture story
Sloughs are affected by the underground as well as surface features
Be patient. This piece does have a punch line and it does relate to farming — but it comes at the end. Carry on and read. No peeking! In 2007 I was involved in a hydrogeology study of a new subdivision in southeast Saskatoon. The real work was done by an engineering firm who hired […] Read more
Water monitoring: dull but necessary
Keeping track of all of the numbers is still necessary for decision making
Long-term monitoring of agricultural and environmental conditions and practices has been an important function of government agencies. It has been my experience in recent years that a lot of important monitoring functions have been reduced in scope or discontinued. In this column, I’ll describe a few examples of good monitoring and show the importance of […] Read more
The “other” moisture
Surface moisture is easy to measure: Moisture from the water table is another story
In making soil moisture maps as of freeze up the past few wet years, I have come to realize that we should have maps of areas where the surface moisture that we grow crops with has little or no connection to the water table. This piece adds a bit to that idea. In the 1980s […] Read more
Rethinking the natural water cycle
The natural systems we rely on and think of as simple are actually very complicated
Groundbreaking water research out of the University of Saskatchewan has just been published in the international science journal Nature. Researchers Jaivime Evaristo and Dr. Jeffrey McDonnell of from the U. of S. and Scott Jasechko of the University of Calgary have taken a new look at the hydrological cycle, something that’s been pretty well established […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
