Dani Or, Milad Aminzadeh ,Erfan Haghighi ,Stan Schymanski , Peter Lehmann - ETH Zurich, Soil and Terrestrial Environmental Physics, Zurich, Switzerland

Land plants developed a dynamically gas-permeable layer at their leaf surfaces to allow CO2 uptake for photosynthesis while controlling water vapor loss through numerous adjustable openings (stomata) in the impervious leaf epidermis. Details of stomata structure, density and function may vary greatly among different plant families and respond to local environmental conditions, yet they share basic traits in dynamically controlling gaseous exchange rates by varying stomata apertures. We implement a pore scale gas diffusion model to quantitatively interpret the functionality of different combinations of stomata size and pattern on leaf gas exchange and thermal management based on data from fossil records and contemporary data sets.

from: EGU General Assembly 2014, held 27 April - 2 May, 2014 in Vienna, Austria, id.14801