Pune: A recent study by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, has found that the way water is absorbed by plants and its subsequent transpiration into the atmosphere can be used to determine active and break cycles in monsoon.Transpiration is the process of plants and trees releasing substantial amounts of moisture into the atmosphere. Researchers analysed the transpired water on a few plants during the monsoon of 2016 and 2017 for the study.S Chakraborty, the lead researcher of the study and an IITM scientist, said the study used a relatively new method to measure the “oxygen isotopic ratios” in the transpired water. “The isotopes, which are the atoms of the same element, but of different masses, behave slightly differently during certain physical processes, such as evaporation,” he said.He added that since monsoon is characterized by active (times of heavy rain) and break (relatively low rain) phases, the soil evaporation process is expected to be low and high during an active and break conditions respectively.“Since isotopic values of soil water are strongly controlled by soil evaporation, an active phase will make the soil water isotopically “light”, while a break condition will make it isotopically “heavy”. The same water is taken up by the plants and trees and released into the atmosphere through transpiration. Hence, transpired water during an active phase of monsoon will be isotopically “light” but “heavy” during a break condition.Our study, for the first time, proposes that observing plant transpired water may be useful to determine the active and break phases of monsoon on local to regional scale,” said Chakraborty.Researchers said this feature of the transpired water has been exploited by the IITM scientists for the first time. This study was recently published in the international journal Scientific Reports.The study of active and break phases otherwise usually relies on meteorological parameters, such as rainfall, outgoing longwave radiation etc.

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