Lancaster Environment Centre

I am interested in the responses of crop plants to water deficits and how these responses can be used to help with irrigation decisions. My current work centres on the use of thermal sensing for detecting water stress: under conditions of limited water availability plants reduce their transpiration (evaporative cooling) and this increases their surface temperature. Canopy temperature can be measured remotely with infrared sensors (IR thermometers or thermal cameras), which provide a relatively easy way to study plant-water relations.