A Model of Isotope Separation in Plants

A model representing isotope separation during water evaporation in plants was constructed. The model accounts for substance diffusion, convective transfer and evaporation from the surface of the leaves. The dependence of the system’s separation and enrichment coefficients on various parameters (liquid velocity, diffusion coefficient, and potential barriers for molecules and their thermal velocities) was determined. A comparison was made between the enrichment coefficients calculated from experimental data from different plants and those based on the model. Qualitative agreement between the experimental and theoretical values was obtained for the case of uhD≫1\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\frac{uh}{D} {\gg} 1$$\end{document}, where u is the average velocity of water in the plant, h is the height of the plant, and D is the diffusion coefficient of the substance.