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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Stomatal regulation is a key determinant of plant photosynthesis and water relations, influencing plant survival, adaptation,
and growth. Stomata sense the surrounding environment and respond rapidly to abiotic and biotic stresses.
Stomatal conductance to water vapour (gs) and/or transpiration (E) are therefore valuable physiological parameters
to be monitored in plant and agricultural sciences. However, leaf gas exchange measurements involve contact with
leaves and often interfere with leaf functioning. Besides, they are time consuming and are limited by the sampling
characteristics (e.g. sample size and/or the high number of samples required). Remote and rapid means to assess
gs or E are thus particularly valuable for physiologists, agronomists, and ecologists. Transpiration influences the leaf
energy balance and, consequently, leaf temperature (Tleaf). As a result, thermal imaging makes it possible to estimate
or quantify gs and E. Thermal imaging has been successfully used in a wide range of conditions and with diverse plant
species. The technique can be applied at different scales (e.g. from single seedlings/leaves through whole trees or
field crops to regions), providing great potential to study plant–environment interactions and specific phenomena
such as abnormal stomatal closure, genotypic variation in stress tolerance, and the impact of different management
strategies on crop water status. Nevertheless, environmental variability (e.g. in light intensity, temperature, relative
humidity, wind speed) affects the accuracy of thermal imaging measurements. This review presents and discusses the
advantages of thermal imaging applications to plant science, agriculture, and ecology, as well as its limitations and
possible approaches to minimize them, by highlighting examples from previous and ongoing research
Description
Review Paper
Keywords
plant-environment interactions thermography
Pedagogical Context
Citation
" Journal of Experimental Botany ". 64 (13) (2013) p. 3937-3949