Method for the estimation of nutrient uptake kinetic parameters using nonparametric statistics

The uptake of many plant nutrients has been shown to follow Michaelis‐Menten enzyme kinetics, and as a result several methods of collecting and analyzing uptake data have been developed. The method proposed here consists of a continuously flowing hydroponic system and a method of data analysis that estimates a value of K_mand V_max for each plant. The method is nondestructive; it does not require large amounts of space; and the plants are near steady‐state uptake. In simulated experiments with various assumptions about variability in the data, the nonparametric statistical analysis of the results provided estimates as good as or better than regression analysis estimates of the two parameters of the Michaelis‐Menten equation.