Measurement Techniques in Plant Science

419 Pages·1990·17.126 MB·English

by  Yasushi Hashimoto, Hiroshi Nonami, Paul J. Kramer and Boyd R. Strain (Eds.)

Academic Press Rapid Manuscript Reproduction
M e a s u r e m e nt
T e c h n i q u es in
P l a nt S c i e n ce
Edited by
YASUSHI HASHIMOTO PAUL J. KRAMER
Department of Biomechanical Systems Department of Botany
College of Agnculture, Ehime University Duke University
Tarumi, Matsuyama, Japan Durham, North Carolina
HIROSHI NONAMI BOYD R. STRAIN
Department of Biomechanical Systems Department of Botany
College of Agnculture, Ehime University Duke University
Tarumi, Matsuyama, Japan Durham, North Carolina
ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
Harcowt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers
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This book is printed on acid-free paper. ©
Copyright © 1990 by Academic Press, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
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United Kingdom Edition published by
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Measurement techniques in plant science / edited by Yasushi
Hashimoto
... [et al.].
p. cm.
Based on a symposium entitled "Instrumentation and Physi
ological
Ecology", held in Tokyo in 1985
ISBN 0-12-330585-3
1. Plant physiological ecology-Congresses. 2. Growth
(Plants)-
- Measurement-Congresses. 3. Crops-Growth--Measurement-
-Congresses. I. Hashimoto, Yasushi, Date.
QK905.M43 1990
581.3'l-dc20 90-49622
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
90 91 92 93 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
C O N T R I B U T O RS
Numbers in parentheses indicate the pages on which the authors' contributions begin.
I. Aiga (343), College of Agriculture, University of Osaka, Prefecture, Sakai,
Osaka 591, Japan
/. S . Boyer (101), College of Marine Studies, University of Delaware, Lewes,
Delaware 19958
W. Day (207), AFRC Institute of Engineering Research, Wrest Park, Silsoe,
Bedford MK45 4HS, United Kingdom
H. Eguchi (361), Biotron Institute, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812, Japan
E. Epstein (291), Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, Univer
sity of California, Davis, California 95616
Y. Fares (265), Biosystems Technologies, Inc., Durham, North Carolina
27706-4851
C. B. Field (185), Department of Plant Biology, Carnegie Institution of
Washington, 290 Panama Street, Stanford, California 94305-1297
JB. L. Fiscus (79), United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture
Research Service, 1701 Center Fort Collins, Colorado 80526
Avenue ,
J. D. Goeschl (265), Biosystems Technologies, Inc., Durham, North Caro
lina 27706-4851
Y. Hashimoto (7,373), Department of Biomechanical Systems, College of
Agriculture, Ehime University, Tarumi, Matsuyama 790, Japan
S. E. Hetherington (229), Division of Horticulture, Sydney Laboratories,
CSIRO, North Ryde, Sydney 2113, Australia
C. R Jaeger (265), EPO Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
80309
T. Kaneko (277), Advanced Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd., Kokubunji,
Tokyo, Japan
y. Kano (165), Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Technol
ogy, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Koganei, Tokyo,
Japan
M. JR . Kaufmann (69), United States Department of Agriculture Forest
Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Fort
Collins, Colorado 80521
ix
χ CONTRIBUTORS
/· Kondo (343), Science Council of Japan, Roppongi, Tokyo 106, Japan
P. J. Kramer (3,45,403), Department of Botany, Duke University, Durham,
North Carolina 27706
S. Kuraishi (151), Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of In­
tegrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima 730, Japan
/. S. MacFall (403), School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Duke
University, Durham, North Carolina 27706
C. £· Magnuson (265), Biosystems Technologies, Inc., Durham, North
Carolina 27706-4851
H. Miyauchi (151), Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of
Integrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima 730,
Japan
H. A. Mooney (185), Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford Univer­
sity, Stanford, California 94305
H. Nonami (7, 101), Department of Biomechanical Systems, College of
Agriculture, Ehime University, Tarumi, Matsuyama 790, Japan
K. Omasa (343,387), National Institute for Environmental Studies, Yatabe,
Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan
K. /. Parkinson (207), Analytical Development Company, Ltd., Pindar
Road, Hoddesdon, Herts EN1 10AQ, United Kingdom
N. Sakurai (151), Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of In­
tegrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima 730, Japan
K. Shimazaki (387), College of General Education, Kyushu University,
Ropponmatsu, Fukuoka 810, Japan
/. ΛΓ. Siedow (403), Department of Botany, Duke University, Durham,
North Carolina 27706
JR. M. Smillie (229), Division of Horticulture, Sydney Laboratories, CSIRO,
North Ryde, Sydney 2113, Australia
E. Steudle (113), Lehrstuhl fur Pflanzenokologie, Universitat Bayreuth,
8580 Bayreuth, Federal Republic of Germany
B. R. Strain (265), Department of Botany, Duke University, Durham,
North Carolina 27706
K. Supappibul (151), Mangrove Forest Management Unit, Lamngob,
Namchew, Trat, Thailand
M. Takatsuji (277), Advanced Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd.,
Kokubunji, Tokyo, Japan
R. M. Welch (319), United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture
Research Service, U.S. Plant, Soil & Nutrition Laboratory, Ithaca, New
York 14853-0331
H. Yamasaki (25), Department of Mathematical Engineering and Infor­
mation Physics, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1
Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan
PREFACE
Progress in plant science always has been and continues to be dependent
on progress in the instrumentation required to measure plant processes and
environmental factors. This book has its origins in the international
symposium entitled "Instrumentation and Physiological Ecology" held in
Tokyo in 1985. The symposium brought together scientists from labora
tories in various countries to exchange information about existing in
strumentation and provided opportunities to discuss new problems and
new apparatus needed to solve them.
The symposium covered the topics of water relations, photosynthesis,
translocation, mineral nutrition, and image processing. Since the time of
the symposium, there have been important developments and refinements
in measurement techniques and technologies, such as intelligent sensing
systems and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) computer tomography,
which are included as topics in this book. In addition, articles have been
revised and updated as deemed necessary by their authors.
This book will be of interest not only to specialists in plant science, but
also to students who may be interested in reading of the histories of the
development of the instrumentations which are included in the reviews.
It should also be of interest to engineers working toward practical appli
cations of the techniques for crop management described in the book.
Y. Hashimoto
P. f. Kramer
H. Nonami
B. R. Strain
xi
INSTRUMENTATION AND PROGRESS IN SCIENCE
Paul J. Kramer
Department of Botany
Duke University
Advances in science depend on new ideas and on
development of the instrumentation needed to
investigate the ideas. Pioneers such as Newton,
Darwin, Mendel, and Einstein created new concepts
with revolutionary implications for various
branches of science, but their concepts are still
being explored and expanded as new instrumentation
and new research methods permit the acquisition of
new information. The importance of instrumentation
is well recognized in the scientific world and
several Nobel prizes have been awarded to
developers of devices such as cyclotrons,
transistors, lasers, partition chromatography, and
the CAT X-ray scanning technique.
Many good ideas have waited for decades because
of the lack of instrumentation to investigate them,
and on the other hand development of new
instrumentation often results in a notable increase
in research activity. The history of the study of
photosynthesis provides an example of how progress
depends on instrumentation. About 1771 Priestley
observed that green plants changed the composition
of the air in containers enclosing the plants.
However, it was not until improved methods for
analyzing the composition of the air and measuring
changes in volume of its components were developed
early in the 19th century that it was established
by de Saussure that green plants in the light
absorb CO2 and release O2· It was another 60 years
before Sachs established that the chloroplasts were
involved in this gas exchange and that carbohydrate
was produced. It was not until after radioactive
isotopes became available in the 1930s that the
reductive carbon cycle was worked out, and only
after the development of new instrumentation was it
possible to study photosynthetic electron flow.
Measurement Techniques in Plant Science
Copyright © 1990 by Academic Press, Inc.
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 3
4 Chapter 1: Introduction
Few field measurements of photosynthesis were
made during the 19th and early 20th century because
there was no convenient method of measuring gas
exchange. In early studies change in CO2
concentration of the air passed over leaves was
measured by bubbling the air through tubes filled
with dilute alkali and titrating the alkali or
measuring change in conductivity to determine the
amount that had been neutralized by the CO2. This
method was slow, untidy, and not very accurate.
During the 1940s infrared gas analyzers began to be
used to measure change in concentration of gases
and commercially built infrared gas analyzers
sensitive to CO2 became available in the 1950s.
However, the first instruments were large and heavy
and required mobile laboratories for field
measurements of photosynthesis. Improvements in
electronics and microprocessors now make it
possible to carry the equipment to the field in a
suitcase. Infrared gas analyzers proved to be so
useful, both in the laboratory and in the field,
that there was a great increase in research on gas
exchange of plants under various environmental
conditions. Today infrared gas exchange
measurements are being supplemented by measurements
of oxygen production of leaf disks, chlorophyll
fluorescence of attached leaves, and carbon isotope
discrimination, to provide a broader understanding
of photosynthesis. Some of these technologies are
discussed in this volume.
There was a similar lag between theory and
practice in the field of plant water relations.
The idea that the free energy status of water (now
termed the water potential) was important was
developed early in this century, but several
decades passed before practical methods of
measuring water potential were developed (see
Chapter 2). Good physiological-ecological research
often benefits from simultaneous measurement of CO2
exchange, stomatal conductance, and plant water
status, all of which have become possible because
reliable, portable gas analyzers, porometers,
thermocouple psychrometers, and Scholander pressure
chambers are available. As a result of these
improvements in instrumentation research in this
area has increased many fold in recent years.
Improvements in the measurement of plant water
status are discussed in Chapter 2.
Instrumentation and Progress in Science 5
Improvements in equipment to control the plant
environment also have contributed to progress in
physiological and ecological research.
Technological advances in air conditioning and
control systems and improvements in artificial
lighting have increased the usefulness of growth
chambers and improved the reproducibility of
controlled environmental regimes.
New information often indicates new areas of
ignorance and the need for more information, and
this in turn creates the need for additional
instrumentation. Looking to the future we are in a
period of rapid development of instrumentation in
which the combination of improved electronics and
computer capacity combined with existing
instrumentation permits measurements that were
impossible a decade or two ago. An example is the
development of nuclear magnetic resonance
spectroscopy and imaging. The physical principles
were understood before the technology made it
useful in biology and medicine. Only after strong,
stable, superconducting magnets and large computers
to store and process data became available could
the concept be fully exploited. Now improvements
in gradient and radio frequency coils and pulse
control are resulting in images in the microscopic
range (see Chapter 6).
Technology is advancing too rapidly for plant
scientists to keep informed concerning new
apparatus and new methods that might be useful in
their research. An example is the development of a
half dozen new scanning probes, following the
appearance of the scanning tunneling microscope
(STM) in 1981. The STM does not work well on
biological material, but it seems possible that
some of the new scanning probe microscopes such as
the atomic force microscope or the scanning near-
field optical microscope may become useful in
biological research. Thus there is increasing need
for interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration
between plant scientists and designers of
scientific equipment. Books such as this should
increase the transfer of useful technology.
OVERVIEW OF CURRENT MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES
FROM ASPECTS OF PLANT SCIENCE
Yasushi Hashimoto
Hiroshi Nonami
Department of Biomechanical Systems
College of Agriculture, Ehime University
Tarumi, Matsuyama 790, Japan
I . INTRODUCTION
Advancements in sensor designs and developments in
measurement techniques have been occurring rapidly in recent
years owing to developments in electronics and computer
science. Such progress has deeply influenced current
measurement techniques in plant science. Agricultural
industries, as well as scientists in the field of plant
science, have an interest in the recent developments in
sensors and measurement technologies, as attempts are being
made to automate agricultural production. However,
automation of agricultural production has not been widely
attained a commercially feasible basis thus far.
Developments in instrumentation have led to smaller and
smaller instruments, enabling researchers to measure
quantities more precisely. Also, the invention of
instrumentation for use with intact living tissues has made
it possible to measure physiological information without
Measurement Techniques in Plant Science
Copyright Ο 1990 by Academic Press, Inc.
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 7