A model describing water uptake by plants with particular attention to the soil-root interface under transient conditions is derived and discussed. Field data on a daily scale enable the unknown parameters of the model to be determined with the help of an identification technique. The model is then used to analyse the experimental results presented in part I of this paper. The loss of total conductivity of the soil-tree system under drought conditions whereas the metabolism of the trees seems to remain unaffected can be explained by the increase of the soil-root resistance. In fact this resistance becomes the limiting factor when the volumetric soil water content decreases (below 0 = 0.33 for the superficial layer and 0.36 for the deeper one in the studied case). Such values can be frequently encountered at the end of summer.
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