19/4/2016
Plants show stress in thermal spectrum ­­ ScienceDaily
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Plants show stress in thermal spectrum
Date:
December 15, 2015
Source:
University of Twente
Summary:
Plants experience stress as a result of growing under non­optimal conditions. For
example, too little water or low temperatures lead to clear responses such as wilting or
defoliation. But exposure to milder forms of stress can also affect a plant. Researchers
have found a way to detect these milder forms of stress.
FULL STORY
Plants experience stress as a result of growing under non­optimal conditions. For
example, too little water or low temperatures lead to clear responses such as
wilting or defoliation. But exposure to milder forms of stress can also affect a plant.
Researchers at the ITC Faculty for Geo­information science and Earth Observation
of the University of Twente have found a way to detect these milder forms of
stress.
A new study reveals that plants show signals in a part of the electro­magnetic spectrum that has been
very little studied for plants to date. The study is forthcoming in one of the leading remote sensing
journals, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
A team of plant ecologists and spectroscopists of ITC have shown that when plants were stressed, either
by lack of water or too low temperatures, plants change their emissivity in the thermal infrared. Emissivity
determines how much energy a surface radiates.
Thermal infrared
Electro­magnetic radiation can be characterized by its "size," the wavelength. Very short radiation (400­
700 nanometers or 0.0000004­0.0000007 meters) is visible light. Radiation of longer wavelengths is
known as infrared radiation and used, for example, in night vision equipment. A specific part of this
infrared part of the spectrum, called thermal infrared (3000 ­­ 12000 nanometers), turns out to contain
information on whether plants are suffering from mild, but prolonged stress.
Tune energy budget
The importance of the mentioned study is that subtle plant stress can be detected when looking at
radiation in the thermal infrared. But also, it means that plants tune their energy budget to some extent
by changing how much energy they lose in the form of thermal infrared radiation. This will influence how
plants respond to, for example, climatic change.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151215093939.htm
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19/4/2016
Plants show stress in thermal spectrum ­­ ScienceDaily
Story Source:
The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Twente. Note: Materials may be
edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
1. Maria F. Buitrago, Thomas A. Groen, Christoph A. Hecker, Andrew K. Skidmore. Changes in
thermal infrared spectra of plants caused by temperature and water stress. ISPRS Journal of
Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 2016; 111: 22 DOI: 10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2015.11.003
Cite This Page:
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University of Twente. "Plants show stress in thermal spectrum." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 15
December 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151215093939.htm>.
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