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Schematic showing various parts of the fern leaf and the presumed directions of the water transport, which is based on the orientation of the leaf and gravity.
Source publication
Several flora and fauna species found in arid areas have adapted themselves to collect water by developing unique structures and to intake the collected moisture. Apart from the capture of the moisture and fog on the surface, water transport and collection both play an important part in fog-harvesting systems as it prevents the loss of captured wat...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... in this process, the water removal process is the most important step in determining the efficiency of a fog-harvesting substrate. Figure 9 shows the schematic of the fern frond depicting the possible directions of the water transport. From the data presented here, it is clear that the channels are responsible for the efficient water removal from the surfaces. ...
Citations
... Interestingly, the stem flow water showed a positive correlation with leaf wettability on the abaxial side while a negative correlation with the adaxial surface. It indicates that the stem flow water increases when the adaxial leaf surface of the wheat leaf is hydrophilic [34,35]. Also, the alternate leaf surface properties on both sides increase the water input in the root zone by alternate droplet retention due to the hydrophilic property of the adaxial surface and increase droplet movement due to the hydrophobic property of the abaxial surface. ...
Background: Climate change and depleting water sources demand scarce natural water supplies like air moisture to be used as an irrigation water source. Wheat production is threatened by climate variability and extreme climate events especially heat waves and drought. The present study focused to develop the wheat plant for self-irrigation by optimizing leaf architecture and surface properties for precise irrigation.
Methods: Thirty-four genotypes were selected from 1796 genotypes with all combinations of leaf angle and leaf rolling. These genotypes were characterized for morpho-physiological traits and soil moisture content at stem elongation and booting stages. Further, a core set of ten genotypes was evaluated for stem flow efficiency and leaf wettability.
Results: Biplot, heat map, and correlation analysis indicated wide diversity and traits association. The environmental parameters indicated a substantial amount of air moisture (> 60% relative humidity) at these critical wheat growth stages. Leaf angle showed a negative association with leaf rolling, physiological and yield traits, adaxial and abaxial contact angle while leaf angle showed a positive association with the stem flow water. The wettability and air moisture harvesting indicated that the genotypes (coded as 1, 7, and 18) having semi-erect to erect leaf angle, spiral rolling,
and hydrophilic leaf surface (<90o) with contact angle hysteresis less than 10o
had higher soil moisture content (6-8%) and moisture harvesting efficiency (3.5 ml).
Conclusions: These findings can provide the basis to develop self-irrigating, drought-tolerant wheat cultivars as an adaptation to climate change.
... Fog persists in this region due to low temperature at night and high humidity (Additional file 2: Fig. S1). Leaf wetting has positive effects on plant water status, and wheat plants have leaf morphology that may help in the nucleation of fog water (Azad et al. 2015;Berry et al. 2019;Roth-Nebelsick et al. 2012;Sharma et al. 2018Sharma et al. , 2016. For example, in wheat, morphological traits, leaf rolling and leaf to stem angle can suppress the transpiration and also help to move the water toward the root zone due to leaf surface repellency (Rosado and Holder 2013). ...
... Fog plays a relevant ecological role as an alternative water source for plants (Burgess and Dawson 2004;Goldsmith et al. 2013;Malik et al. 2014). Wheat plants possess the leaf morphology of efficient fog capturing analogues to other plants as presented by (Azad et al. 2015;Ju et al. 2012;Roth-Nebelsick et al. 2012;Sharma et al. 2018Sharma et al. , 2016. Twisting type leaf rolling i.e. cone-shaped leaf helps the plant in the leaf water movement as similar in Stipagrostis sabulicola (Roth-Nebelsick et al. 2012), movement of the water droplets to the root-zone further enhanced by the leaf angle. ...
Background
Plants use different mechanisms to transport the collected fog water. Leaf traits of wheat play an important role in directing fog water through leaf rolling and leaf angle into the root zone, where it can be stored for consumption. Wheat leaf traits can enhance fog capturing under drought stress. To examine this, 200 wheat genotypes were characterized for leaf rolling and leaf angle under optimal conditions in the field using a randomized complete block design. Seven different phenotypic combinations for leaf traits were observed. A core set of 44 genotypes was evaluated under drought stress.
Results
Results show that variability for leaf traits existed among genotypes. An association was found between leaf rolling and leaf angle, moisture capturing, physiological parameters, and yield contributing traits using correlation. Physiological parameters, especially water use efficiency, were positively correlated with grain yield and moisture capturing at both growth stages. The genotypes (G11 at tillering and G24 at booting phonological phases) with inward to twisting type rolling and erect to semi-erect leaf angle capture more water (12–20%) within the root zone. Twenty-one genotypes were selected based on moisture capturing efficiency and evaluated for leaf surface wettability. Association was found between fog capturing and wettability. This shows that it was due to the leaf repellency validated from static contact angle measurements.
Conclusion
These results will give insights into fog capturing and the development of drought-tolerant crops in the semi-arid and arid regions.
... The present study was focused on the atmospheric water harvesting and phenotyping of leaf rolling dynamics, and their association with morphophysiological parameters. As results indicated that wheat plants have leaf morphology for efficient moisture harvesting similar to other plants (Azad et al. 2015;Ju et al. 2012;Malik et al. 2014;Roth-Nebelsick et al. 2012;Sharma et al. 2018). The twisted (spiral) leaves of the wheat plant enable the water droplets to be channeled Real-time data of climatic parameters recorded by the weather station revealed that atmospheric air becomes saturated with 80-100% water vapors and moisture in December, January, and February (Fig. 2). ...
Plant species surviving in the arid regions have developed novel leaf features to harvest atmospheric water. Before the collected water evaporates, it is absorbed and transported for storage within the tissues and move toward the root zone through the unique chemistry of leaf structures. Deep insights into such features reveal that similarities can be found in the wheat plant. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the leaf rolling dynamics among wheat genotypes and their relationships with moisture harvesting and its movement on the leaf surface. For this purpose, genotypes were characterized for leaf rolling at three distinct growth stages (tillering, booting, and spike emergence). The contact angle of leaf surface dynamics (adaxial and abaxial), water budget, and morphophysiological traits of genotypes were measured. The results indicate that leaf rolling varies from inward to twisting type among genotypes and positively affected the water use efficiency and soil moisture difference at all growth stages under normal and drought conditions. Results of wetting property (hydrophilic < 90°) of the leaf surface were positively associated with the atmospheric water collection (4-7 ml). The lower values of contact angle hysteresis (12-19°) also support this mechanism. Thus, genotypes with leaf rolling dynamics (inward rolled and twisted) and surface wettability is an efficient fog harvesting system in wheat for interception and utilization of fog water in drought-prone areas. These results can be exploited to develop self-irrigated and drought-tolerant crops.
... Another investigation on Dryopteris marginata reported the importance of well-developed channels on the leaf surface that allows for efficient passage and transport of fog water. Grooves help to increase the water collecting rate (Sharma et al. 2018). The leaf surface of wheat has longitudinal grooves running throughout the lamina and a study revealed that medium to deep grooves help in the channeling and movement of water droplets (Hakeem et al. 2021). ...
Several plant species such as grasses are dominant in many habitats including arid and semi-arid areas. These species survive in these regions by developing exclusive structures, which helps in the collection of atmospheric water. Before the collected water evaporates, these structures have unique canopy structure for water transportation that plays an equivalent share in the fog-harvesting mechanism. In this review, the atmospheric gaseous water harvesting mechanisms and their affinity of measurements were discussed. Morphological adaptations and their role in the capturing of atmospheric gaseous water of various species were also discussed. The key factor for the water collection and its conduction in the wheat plant is the information of contact angle hysteresis. In wheat, leaf rolling and its association with wetting property help the plant in water retention. Morphological adaptations, i.e., leaf erectness, grooves, and prickle hairs, also help in the collection and acquisition of water droplets by stem flows in directional guide toward the base of the plant and allow its rapid uptake. Morphological adaptation strengthens the harvesting mechanism by preventing the loss of water through shattering. Thus, wheat canopy architecture can be modified to harvest the atmospheric water and directional movement of water towards the root zone for self-irrigation. Moreover, these morphological adaptations are also linked with drought avoidance and corresponding physiological processes to resist water stress. The combination of these traits together with water use efficiency in wheat contributes to a highly efficient atmospheric water harvesting system that enables the wheat plants to reduce the cost of production. It also increases the yielding potential of the crop in arid and semi-arid environments. Further investigating the ecophysiology and molecular pathways of these morphological adaptations in wheat may have significant applications in varying climatic scenarios.
... In plants, hydrophobic self-cleaning surfaces may both protect against harmful microorganisms, which are growth-inhibited by dry plant surfaces and ensure efficient gas exchange by keeping a thin film of air clinging to the surface when the leaves are submerged [76]. This effect has been drawing attention in the last few years for different applications in materials science, such as fabrics, photovoltaic panels surfaces, anticorrosion, and fog-harvesting surfaces, among others [77][78][79]. To test the self-cleaning behavior in our case, activated carbon powder was scattered over inclined surfaces (both flat and biomimetic 3D printed materials) mimicking organic contamination, and then water drops were added (Supporting Video 3) [32]. ...
The rice leaf, combining the surface properties of lotus leaves and shark skin, presents outstanding superhydrophobic properties motivating its biomimesis. We created a novel biomimetic rice-leaf superhydrophobic surface by a three-level hierarchical structure, using for a first time stereolithographic (SLA) 3D printed channels (100µm width) with an intrinsic roughness from the printing filaments (10µm), and coated with TiO2 nanoparticles (22 and 100nm). This structure presents a maximum advancing contact angle of 165° characterized by lower both anisotropy and hysteresis contact angles than other 3D printed surfaces, due to the presence of air pockets at the surface/water interface (Cassie-Baxter state). Dynamic water-drop tests show that the biomimetic surface presents self-cleaning, which is reduced under UV-A irradiation. The biomimetic surface further renders an increased floatability to 3D printed objects meaning a drag-reduction due to reduced water/solid contact area. Numerical simulations of a channel with a biomimetic wall confirm that the presence of air is essential to understand our results since it increases the average velocity and decreases the friction factor due to the presence of a wall-slip velocity. Our findings show that SLA 3D printing is an appropriate approach to develop biomimetic superhydrophobic surfaces for future applications in anti-fouling and drag-reduction devices.
... The utilization of a bio-inspiration in design of a sensor for biochemical analysis was thus found to be suited to the application of sensing of multiple analytes simultaneously. Biomimetics has a prominent role to play in terms of device functionality in various fields, sensing and microfluidics being an important one (Sharma et al. 2018). Bio-inspired paper microfluidics have found great application in Point of care Technologies which are the need of the hour (Gao et al. 2019). ...
Inspirations from nature coupled with engineering have proven to be extremely beneficial in developing microfluidic platforms that have an edge over other sensing methods owing to their sensitivity, low chemical hazard risk and suitability to simulation-based studies due to the laminar nature of microflows. This work depicts a bio-inspired microfluidic platform comprising of multichannel network that mimics tentacled bio-species both in morphology and their functionality wherein each channel is designed to perform a unique sensing operation. The design is improvised geometrically based on the requirement of a streamlined flow pattern, with a uniform velocity profile in all the tentacles, along with a uniform outflow for an effective and sensitive real time applicability. The simulations are performed by adopting the Finite Volume Method (FVM) using ANSYS Fluent, under the 3-Dimensional, incompressible, Newtonian flow assumption. The laminar, biphasic approach is adopted for the modelling. The flow pattern, parameters of interest and the response of the sensor are also studied based on the possible injection methods applied, to provide an insight into the role of injection in the functionality and to analyze the suitability of the sensor in bio-analytical applications. The bio-inspired platform paves way for developing similar suitable novel architectures for handling multiple sensing operations simultaneously, in an integrated manner, which can lead to the development of efficient, integrated sensing platforms.
... Genotypes 5 and 22 had ACA greater than 90° for the abaxial surface and genotype 6 for adaxial leaf surface. Dryopteris marginata (Sharma et al. 2018), and Cynodon dactylon (Sharma et al. 2016). The prickle hairs on the wheat leaf surface act in the same way as plant hairs in O. microdasys (Ju et al. 2014) by entangling moisture droplets. ...
Main conclusion
The leaf features like trichome density, gradient grooves, and leaf wettability determine the efficiency to capture air moisture for self-irrigation in the wheat plant.
Abstract
Plants in water-scarce environments evolved to capture air moisture for their water needs either directly or indirectly. Structural features like cones, hairs, and grooves assist water capture. The morphology of crops such as wheat can promote self-irrigation under drought. To examine this further, 34 wheat genotypes were characterized for leaf traits in near optimal conditions in the field using a randomized complete block design with 3 replications. An association was found between morphological and physiological traits and yield using simple correlation plots. A core set of nine genotypes was subsequently evaluated for moisture harvesting ability and leaf wettability. Results showed that variation among genotypes exists for fog harvesting ability attributed to structural leaf features. Physiological traits, especially photosynthesis and water use efficiency, were positively associated with yield, negatively correlated with soil moisture at booting, and positively correlated with soil moisture at anthesis. The genotypes with deep to medium leaf grooves and dense hairs on the edges and adaxial surfaces (genotypes 7 and 18) captured the most moisture. This was a function of higher water drop rolling efficiency resulting from lower contact angle hysteresis. These results can be exploited to develop more heat and drought-tolerant crops.
... Some ferns such as Dryopteris marginata are known to efficiently collect the water by efficient channeling. 13 In all of these mentioned systems, there are well-studied mechanisms related to the efficient water nucleation, growth/storage, and transport. ...
Hierarchical surfaces that aid in the droplet nucleation, growth, and removal is highly desirable for fog and moisture harvesting applications. Taking inspiration from the unique architecture of leaf skeletons, we present a multiscale surface capable of rapidly nucleating, growing, and directional transport of the water droplets. Copper oxide microtufts were fabricated onto the Ficus religiosa leaf skeletons via electroplating and chemical oxidation techniques. The fabricated surfaces with microtufts had high wettability and very good fog harvesting ability. CuO surfaces tend to become hydrophobic over time because of the adsorption of the airborne species. The surfaces were efficient in fog harvesting even when the hydrophobic coating is present. The overall water collection efficiencies were determined, and the role of the microtufts, fractal structures, and the orientation of leaf veins was investigated. Compared to the planar control surfaces, the noncoated and hydrophobic layer-coated copper oxide microtufts on the leaf skeletons displayed a significant increase in the fog harvesting efficiency. For superhydrophilic skeleton surfaces, the water collection rate was also observed to slightly vary with the vein orientation. The CuO microtufts along with high surface area fractals allowed an effective and sustainable way to capture and transport water. The study is expected to provide valuable insights into the design and fabrication of sustainable and efficient fog harvesting systems.
... In drought, plants uptake water from soil or collect water from atmosphere to maintain the normal metabolism and growth [20][21][22]. ...
... Some plants (e.g., Cactaceae species) live in arid environments but are with extremely resistance to drought. Taking an example of the cactus (e.g., Opuntia microdasys), water collection from fog in desert area, which is one of its survival strategies [21]. There are three integrated parts and mechanisms for water collection on the needle-like trichome [23]. ...
During drought, plant functions at multi-levels (i.e., tissue, cellular and molecular) are adjustable with the change of water condition, which is known as drought resistance. Various biological, chemical and physical mechanisms have been found in plant drought resistance, among which the role of physical cues (especially mechanics) has attracted significantly increasing attention. Recent studies have shown that mechanics is one of the fundamental factors that control the responses and self-adaptation from tissue to molecular levels in plant when the external conditions changes. In the review, we examine how the factor of mechanics acts on the multi-level plant functions under drought stress, including water transport, tissue deformation, cell growth, cell movements, molecules interaction and signal pathway.
... The replicated surfaces proved that efficient water-channeling is due to the surface microstructures rather than the surface chemical composition. This understanding of efficient and well-directed water transport and collection due to the intercalar network of the microchannels in the D. marginata leaf provides a promising approach to design efficient surfaces for application [56]. Building facades with such a strategy might not only be useful in humid areas for drinkable water collection, but they might also be helpful in arid areas where water is limited. ...
... (a) Photograph of the D. marginata frond with labeled areas showing different locations of the water channels. (b-e) Scanning electron microscopy micrographs of the labeled areas in (a); arrows indicate the presumed direction of the water transport through these channels (ap: apex; ia: inner axis; mr: mid-rib)[56]. ...
In the Panama context, energy consumption in the building sector is mostly related to the conditioning of indoor spaces for cooling and lighting. Different nature strategies can be mimic to strongly impact these two aspects in the building sector, such as the ones presented here. A comprehensive analysis regarding literature related to biomimicry-based approaches destined to improve buildings designs is presented here. This analysis is driven by the increasing energy regulations demands to meet future local goals and to propose a framework for applications in Panama. Such biomimicry-based approaches have been further analyzed and evaluated to propose the incorporation of organism-based design for three of the most climate types found in Panama. Consequently, a SWOT analysis helped realized the potential that biomimicry-based approaches might have in improving the odds of in meeting the local and global regulations demands. The need for multidisciplinary collaboration to accomplish biomimicry-based-designed buildings, brings an increment in the competitivity regarding more trained human-assets, widening the standard-construction-sector thinking. Finally, the analysis presented here can serve as the foundation for further technical assessment, via numerical and experimental means.
