June saw SALCA return to Newcastle for NERC-funded field
experiments testing the sensitivity of the instrument to changes in canopy
moisture content. The (literal) field experiment, involving 22 potted trees at
the University’s Cockle Park Farm, involves repeated SALCA scans as drought
stress is induced in groups of trees over a period of 1 month, alongside scans
of regularly watered controls. The SALCA signal will be compared to a range of physiological
measurements and to spectral data acquired with an ASD field spectrometer. The
experiment is now well under way, and after initial teething problems with
windthrow and over inquisitive and hungry livestock, the drying groups of
small-leaved lime (Tilia cordata) and
Austrian pine have been gradually wilting for a little over a week. Steve has
got to grips with the operation of a cherry picker and fingers are crossed that
the so far almost ideal weather will last! Early results from the experiments
will be presented in a poster at INTECOL, London in August.
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| Setting up the experiments |
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| What happens when sheep get hold of a windblown experimental tree, and a possible culprit. |
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| Clockwise: SALCA in the field, a small-leaved lime drying group with intensity calibration board, measuring stomatal conductance and contact probe measurments of leaf reflectance properties. |
