ISHS Acta Horticulturae 7: Symposium on the Techniques of Experimentation in Greenhouses
METHODS OF MEASURING LEAF TEMPERATURE |
| Author: | B. Acock |
| Abstract:
Many of the physiological processes of plants are temperature-dependent and for this reason experimenters attempt to characterise plant environments by recording, amongst other things, the temperature of the air. However, the site of many of these processes is the leaf, and ultimately it is leaf temperature which decides the rate of these processes. Leaf temperature does not bear a fixed relationship to air temperature. Net radiation, air movement, and the humidity of the air all affect leaf temperature, and it is therefore necessary to measure leaf temperature in order fully to understand the plant's response to a given environment (4). Although many workers have measured leaf temperature per se, few have routinely measured it to characterise the plant's environment. One can only assume it is either considered unimportant or too difficult a measurement to make. Therefore this paper briefly reviews the various methods of measuring leaf temperature and then considers in more detail a method which the author has found especially useful. | |
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