We hypothesized that inside the screenhouse, leaf conductance
would be higher due to lower vapor pressure deficit (VPD)
and/or less ephemeral plant water stress. This hypothesis is supported
by reports that banana leaf conductance increases when
VPD decreases (Thomas et al., 1998), similar to many other plants.
Since evaporative demand inside is lower, that would lead to
similar transpiration inside and outside the screenhouse. Alternatively,
if leaf conductance was similar inside and outside, water-use
inside would decrease in proportion to the decrease in solar radiation.
For the latter, water-use could be predicted by using the
Penman–Monteith equation after accounting for the changes in
climate induced by the screen.