Chalk talk: How to measure leaf transpiration
In his latest chalk talk video, Dr. Colin Campbell discusses why you can’t measure leaf transpiration with only a leaf porometer.
He teaches the correct way to estimate the transpiration from a single leaf and how a leaf porometer can be used to obtain one of the needed variables.
Watch the video
Video transcript
Hello, my name is Colin Campbell. I’m a senior research scientist here at METER Group. And today we’ll talk about how to estimate the transpiration from a single leaf. Occasionally we get this question: Can I estimate the transpiration from a leaf by measuring its stomatal conductance? Unfortunately, you can’t. And I want to show you why that’s true and what you’ll need to do to estimate the total conductance, and therefore, the evaporation of a leaf.
Conductance With an sc-1 Leaf Porometer
The calculation of transpiration (E) from a leaf is given by Equation 1
where gv is the total conductance of vapor from inside the leaf into the air, Cvs is the concentration of vapor inside the leaf and Cva is the concentration of vapor in the air.
Learn more about canopy measurements
Download the researcher’s complete guide to leaf area index—>
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