Night-time transpiration can decrease hydraulic redistribution - HOWARD - 2009 - Plant, Cell & Environment. Does night-time transpiration contribute to anisohydric behaviour in a Vitis vinifera cultivar? Predawn disequilibrium between plant and soil water potentials in two cold-desert shrubs. Biophysical and life-history determinants of hydraulic lift in Neotropical savanna trees - Scholz - 2008 - Functional Ecology. Introduction Hydraulic lift involves the passive transport of soil water from relatively wet deep soil layers to drier surface layers through root systems (Richards & Caldwell 1987; Caldwell & Richards 1989), and usually occurs at night when the xylem water potential (Ψ) of the above-ground part of the plant and upper roots rises above that of the upper soil layers.
Hydraulic redistribution has been suggested as a more general term for this process because water movement can occur from upper to lower soil layers or laterally depending on the direction of the soil water potential gradient (Burgess et al. 1998; Smith et al. 1999).