Abstract
Previous studies on soil water–plant relations have mostly focused on the soil water content (SWC), while the effect of soil moisture stability on plant growth has received surprisingly little attention. Potted tomato seedlings were used to examine the effect of stable soil moisture (SM) and fluctuating soil moisture (FM) on plant growth, development, and water use efficiency (WUE) in this study. The results showed that (i) soil moisture stability significantly affected the growth and development, photosynthetic characteristics, morphological traits, root morphology, and water physiological characteristics of seedling tomatoes, with SM being more conducive for most of these indices. (ii) SM improved the leaf WUE by reducing the content of abscisic acid in plants, regulating plant osmotic substances, maintaining a high gas exchange rate, and promoting plant morphology. (iii) SM could avoid water stress on tomato seedlings; even if the SWC of SM was equal to or lower than the SWC of FM, water stress would not occur under SM, whereas it would occur under FM. Overall, compared with FM, SM promoted beneficial plant morphology, maintained a high gas exchange rate, and did not induce water stress for tomato seedlings—ultimately improving WUE. This effect was more effective under low-SWC conditions than under high-SWC conditions. These findings provide a new perspective and theoretical basis for soil water–plant relations and indicate that SM has great potential in promoting plant growth and improving WUE.
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Claims 7
Claim · model-written summary
Stable moisture favored most growth, photosynthetic, morphological, root and water traits.
- Taxon
- tomatoes
Solanum lycopersicume0 - Treatment
- SMe0
- Outcome
- growth and development, photosynthetic characteristics, morphological traitse0
- Direction
- more conducivee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“soil moisture stability significantly affected the growth and development, photosynthetic characteristics, morphological traits, root morphology, and water physiological characteristics of seedling tomatoes, with SM being more conducive for most of these indices”
Claim · model-written summary
Stable moisture improved leaf water use efficiency.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- SMe0
- Outcome
- leaf WUEe0
- Direction
- improvede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“SM improved the leaf WUE by reducing the content of abscisic acid in plants”
t0“Tomato”
Claim · model-written summary
Stable moisture reduced plant abscisic acid content.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- SMe0
- Outcome
- content of abscisic acid in plantse0
- Direction
- reducinge0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“SM improved the leaf WUE by reducing the content of abscisic acid in plants”
t0“Tomato”
Claim · model-written summary
Stable moisture maintained a high gas exchange rate.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- SMe1
- Outcome
- gas exchange ratee0
- Direction
- highe0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“maintaining a high gas exchange rate”
t0“Tomato”
e1“stable soil moisture (SM)”
Claim · model-written summary
Stable moisture promoted seedling morphology.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- SMe1
- Outcome
- plant morphologye0
- Direction
- promotinge0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“promoting plant morphology”
t0“Tomato”
e1“stable soil moisture (SM)”
Claim · model-written summary
Water stress occurred under fluctuating but not stable moisture even at equal or lower soil water content.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- SMe0
- Outcome
- water stress would not occure0
- Comparator
- FMe0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“water stress would not occur under SM, whereas it would occur under FM”
t0“Tomato”
Claim · model-written summary
The benefit of stable moisture was stronger at low than high soil water content.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Outcome
- This effecte0
- Direction
- more effectivee0
- Comparator
- high-SWC conditionse0
- Setting
- low-SWC conditionse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“This effect was more effective under low-SWC conditions than under high-SWC conditions”
t0“Tomato”
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