Plants For Environmental Studies: Riparian Zones and Phreatophytes? (Justice Alexander)

 Riparian Zone Information — Tanana Valley Watershed AssociationPhreatophytes - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics

So above and below I gathered a couple graphics I found on Google when searching the word riparian. I came across this word while reading chapter three of Plants for Environmental Studies (Wang, Hughes, Gorsuch 1997). More specifically, I was reading the section on water use rates by plants. Precise reading of this chapter would give a fair picture of water-plant relations. Commonly, I tend to peruse the Trible Library collections for books on topics I find intriguing or want to further study. Initially, I wanted to collect this books perspective on hydroponics and aquaponics, but I was bombarded by vaguely familiar and absolutely unknown terms like riparian and phreatophyte. 

Taking from Wang, Hughes, Gorsuch (1997), "-there is a concern about water use within riparian zones along streams and, in particular, the water use by phreatophytes along stream channels."(p.90) This sent me on an explosion of questions like: Have I leaned this before? What is a riparian zone? What is a phreatophyte? What relationship do both of these questions have with water? Amazingly these phreatophytes have evolved to take in water directly from the groundwater supply as opposed to relying on constant precipitation. This works exceptionally well when there are extended periods of drought, areas of intermittent rainfall and stream flow, and ephemeral streams which only flow during or after heavy rainfall. It’s promising seeing the steps building for a better understanding of water and its relationship with plants. Looking into the biology of plants is something new for myself and hopefully I can begin to connect the dots leading to more research into aquaponics and planted water systems in general.

A typical riparian zone with its distinguished features

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