Name: Translocation of Mineral Ions
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 8 min 6 s
Description: Translocation of mineral ions occurs in the plants through special channels called phloem. Watch this video to learn how the minerals are absorbed and transl...

Question

What do you mean by water potential? Describe its components.

Accepted Answer

Water potential is a phenomenon that is important to understand water movement in plants take up huge amounts of water daily and internal transport of this water is important for maintaining proper plant physiology. Water molecules possess kinetic energy in both liquid and gaseous form that is rapid and constant. Water potential is described as the difference between the free energy of water molecules in pure water and the energy of water in solution. A solute dissolved in pure water decreases the free energy or concentration of water molecules. The lowering of the magnitude of water potential due to the dissolution of a solute is called solute potential. Pure water has the greatest water potential. Thus, water will eventually move from the system containing water with higher water potential to the one having lower water potential down the gradient through diffusion.

The two components of water potential are osmotic potential and turgor potential.

When two systems containing water and solutes with different concentrations are in contact, random movement of water molecules from a system with higher free energy to a system with lower free energy takes place.

What do you mean by water potential? Describe its components.

Important Questions on Transport in Plants

Learn and Prepare for any exam you want !