Imaging drought stress in plants
Our knowledge of species drought tolerance is significantly limited yet critical in predicting how plants will respond to a rapidly changing climate. New optical techniques for visualising the effect of water stress provide the foundation for a new generation of tools to assess plant drought tolerance.
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From electronics to optics to beta-testing, a range of expertise is required to develop and improve the resources you'll find on the site. If you'd like to get involved then head on over to contributing for more information.
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Capture
Capture images of a leaf or stem over time using a microscope, off-the-shelf document scanner, or 3D-printed clamp.
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Use the OpenSourceOV plugins and guides to extract embolism events from the captured sequence of images.
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Use our detailed guide to analyse the data and present the cumulative effect of increasing drought stress as an optical vulnerability curve.
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Uninterrupted power supply for the RaspberryPi setup using a battery and power converter
By Markus Nolf -As part of an Australia-wide research project, we frequently take our optical setup to remote field stations where continuous power supply isn’t always guaranteed. To cope with the occasional power outage, we are now powering our RaspberryPis through a 12V battery block using an UBEC switching power converter. The battery itself is trickle-charged from a…
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New hand-lens clamp for stem and leaves nearly ready!
By Chris Lucani -
We’ve been very excited testing a new 3D printed clamp that allows you to fit any (most?) standard hand lens to use as the magnifier. Although the Moment lens used in the standard clamp provides an excellent image, it only provides 10x magnification which we’re finding is just not quite enough for most stems. With…
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Mapping xylem failure in disparate organs of whole plants reveals extreme resistance in olive roots
The capacity of plant species to resist xylem cavitation is an important determinant of resistance to drought, mortality thresholds, geographic distribution and productivity. Unravelling the role of xylem cavitation vulnerability in plant evolution and adaptation requires a clear understanding of how this key trait varies between the tissues of individuals and between individuals of species….
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