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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.

Image of the SC-1 Leaf Porometer which measures stomatal conductance
The SC-1 Leaf Porometer measures stomatal conducance

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.

Image of a researcher Measuring stomatal conductance With an SC-1 Leaf Porometer
Researcher Measuring Stomatal
Conductance With an sc-1 Leaf Porometer

The calculation of transpiration (E) from a leaf is given by Equation 1 

Image of the equation used for the calculation of transpiration from a leaf
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.

Read more—>

Learn more about canopy measurements

Download the researcher’s complete guide to leaf area index—>

Questions?

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