Leaf Temperature as Thermal Bio-indicator of Heavy Metal Pollutants

Enviromnental pollution is serious social concern. The inflow of heavy metals in the ecological food chain and their subsequent bio-magnification in human bodies is cascading its harmful effects. The metabolism of plants is being hampered by these heavy metals. In the present studies, effect of heavy metal especially cadmium has been studied on stomatal diffusive resistance （SDR）, transpiration rate, leaf surface humidity and leaf temperature of soybean plants growing in hydroponic cultures. Cadmium treatment decelerates the rate of transpiration. The inhibition of transpiration associated with increased SDR leads to dehydration of leaf surface, thereby, increasing temperature of leaves in comparison to control plants. In the present study, temperature difference between stressed and non-stressed plant leaves was as high as 3℃ Moreover, any such rise in leaf temperature due to uptake and induced toxicity of heavy metals can possibly be a good bio-indicator having wide applications in thermal remote sensing and geospatial monitoring of metal polluted soils.

Effect of overnight temperature on leaf photosynthesis in seedlings of Swietenia macrophylla King

After exposure of one-year old seedlings of Swietenia macrophylla to an overnight temperature (13 C, 19 C, 25 C, 31 C or 35 C), the leaf net photosynthetic rate (Pn) was researched through measuring photosynthetic light-response curves at 360 mmolmol-1 CO2, and photosynthetic CO2-response curves at light-saturated intensity (1500 mmolm-2 s-1). The optimal temperature for photosynthesis measured at 360 mmol穖ol-1 CO2 was from 25 C to 31 C, but which was from 31C to 35 C at saturating CO2 concentration. At temperature of below 25 C, the decline in Pn was mainly due to the drop in carboxylation efficiency (Ce), while as temperature was over 31 C, the reduction in Pn resulted from both decrease in Ce and increase in leaf respiration. The CO2-induced stimulation of photosynthesis was strongly inhibited at temperatures below 13 C. The results showed that, the leaf photosynthesis of tropical evergreen plants should not be accelerated at low temperature in winter season with elevated CO2 concentration in the future.

Leaf Photosynthesis in Response to Removing Fruit During Different Phenological Stages of Fruit Development in Peach Trees

Removing fruit (RF) and retaining fruit (CK) were carried out during different phenological stages of fruit development onone-year-old shoot of Okubo peach trees [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch.] under preventing exportation of the assimilates tothe non experimental parts of the tree by girdling one-year-old shoot and keeping the same leaves between RF and CK.The results showed that fruit removal significantly decreased net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs)and transpiration rate (E), but significantly increased leaf surface temperature (TLeaf ) at about midday as compared with CK.Internal CO2 concentration, soluble sugar content, reductive sugar content, starch content except that during the finalrapid fruit growth stage, ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase and amylase activities in source leaves were not significantlyaffected by fruit removal. There was a significantly positive parabolic correlation between Pn and Gs, and a strongpositive linear correlation between Pn and E. Moreover, Pn increased with increased TLeaf if TLeaf was below 38°C, thendecreased sharply when TLeaf exceeded the above critical temperature for both RF and CK. Pn of RF was lower, however,than that of CK in the same TLeaf , especially if TLeaf exceeded 38°C. It is suggested that the decreased stomatal aperture andincreased TLeaf may be the important mechanism in regulating photosynthesis under a decreased strength of sink demandby RF in fruit trees.

Bionic Leaf Simulating the Thermal Effect of Natural Leaf Transpiration

We proposed a kind of bionic leaf to simulate the thermal effect of leaf transpiration. The bionic leaf was firstly designed to be composed of a green coating, a water holding layer, a Composite Adsorbent （CS） layer and an adsorption-desorption rate controlling layer. A thermophysical model was established for the bionic leaf, and the dynamic simulation results reveal that the water holding layer is not necessary; a CS of high thermal conductivity should be selected as the CS layer; the adsorp- tion-desorption rate controlling layer could be removed due to the low adsorption-desorption rate of the CS; and when CaC12 mass fraction of the CS reaches 40%; the bionic leaf could simulate the dynamic thermal behavior of the natural leaf. Based on the simulation results, we prepared bionic leaves with different CaC12 content. The thermographies of the bionic leaf and the natural leaf were shot using the Infrared Thermal Imager. The measured average radiative temperature difference between the bionic and natural leaves is less than 1.0 ℃.

The Heat and Mass Transfer Analysis of a Leaf

Understanding the heat and mass transfer processes of plant leaves is essential for plant bionic engineering. A general thermophysical model was established for a plant leaf with particular emphasis on the transpiration process. The model was verified by the field measured stomatal resistance and temperature of a camphor leaf. A dynamical simulation revealed that diurnal transpiration water consumption is dominated by the solar irradiance and the day-average temperature of the leaf is dominated by the ambient air temperature; transpiration plays an important role in the cooling of the leaf, in average it could dissipate around 32.9% of the total solar energy absorbed by the leaf in summer. To imitate the thermal infared characteristic of the real leaf, the up surface of the bionic leaf must have emissivity and solar absorptivity close to those of a real leaf and its shape and surface roughness must be similar to those of the real leaf. The key point is that the bionic leaf must be able to evaporate water to simulate the transpiration of a plant leaf, appropriate adsorbent can be used to realize this function.

Non-invasive water status detection in grapevine(Vitis vinifera L.)by thermography

Grapevines are preferentially grown under mild to moderate water stress conditions to achieve the best compromise between wine quality and quantity.Water status detection for advanced irrigation scheduling is frequently done by predawn leaf water potential(ΨPD)or leaf stomata conductance(gL)measurements.However,these measurements are time and labor consuming.Therefore,the use of infrared thermography(IRT)opens up the possibility to study large population of leaves and to give an overview on the stomatal variation and their dynamics.In the present study IRT was used to identify water stress of potted grapevines.In order to define the sensitivity of IRT measurements to water stress,the IRT-based water status information were compared with simultaneously measuredΨPD and gL data.Correlations between IRT-based CWSI data on the one hand and gL andΨPD on the other showed the potential of IRT for water stress detection.However,the CWSI calculation procedure is laborious and the sensitivity of CWSI for water stress detection still needs to be improved.Therefore,further improvements are necessary in order to apply remote IRT-based systems for irrigation scheduling in the field.