How Reliable Are Heat Pulse Velocity Methods for Estimating Tree Transpiration?

نویسنده

  • Michael A. Forster
چکیده

Transpiration is a significant component of the hydrologic cycle and its accurate quantification is critical for modelling, industry, and policy decisions. Sap flow sensors provide a low cost and practical method to measure transpiration. Various methods to measure sap flow are available and a popular family of methods is known as heat pulse velocity (HPV). Theory on thermal conductance and convection, that underpins HPV methods, suggests transpiration can be directly estimated from sensor measurements without the need for laborious calibrations. To test this accuracy, transpiration estimated from HPV sensors is compared with an independent measure of plant water use such as a weighing lysimeter. A meta-analysis of the literature that explicitly tested the accuracy of a HPV sensors against an independent measure of transpiration was conducted. Data from linear regression analysis was collated where an R2 of 1 indicates perfect precision and a slope of 1 of the linear regression curve indicates perfect accuracy. The average R2 and slope from all studies was 0.822 and 0.860, respectively. However, the overall error, or deviation from real transpiration values, was 34.706%. The results indicate that HPV sensors are precise in correlating heat velocity with rates of transpiration, but poor in quantifying transpiration. Various sources of error in converting heat velocity into sap velocity and sap flow are discussed including probe misalignment, wound corrections, thermal diffusivity, stem water content, placement of sensors in sapwood, and scaling of point measurements to whole plants. Where whole plant water use or transpiration is required in a study, it is recommended that all sap flow sensors are calibrated against an independent measure of transpiration.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

A statistical method for estimating wood thermal diffusivity and probe geometry using in situ heat response curves from sap flow measurements.

The heat pulse method is widely used to measure water flux through plants; it works by using the speed at which a heat pulse is propagated through the system to infer the velocity of water through a porous medium. No systematic, non-destructive calibration procedure exists to determine the site-specific parameters necessary for calculating sap velocity, e.g., wood thermal diffusivity and probe ...

متن کامل

EFFECT OF TIME-DEPENDENT TRANSPIRATION ON AXISYMMETRIC STAGNATION-POINT FLOW AND HEATTRANSFER OF A VISCOUS FLUID ON A MOVING CIRCULAR CYLINDER

Effect of time dependent normal transpiration on the problem of unsteady viscous flow and heat transfer in the vicinity of an axisymmetric stagnation point of an infinite circular cylinder moving simultaneously with time-depended angular and axial velocities and with time-dependent wall temperature or wall heat flux are investigated. The impinging free stream is steady with a strain rate . A re...

متن کامل

Water use by Pinus radiata trees in a plantation.

We used the heat-pulse velocity technique to estimate transpirational water use of trees in an experimental 16-year-old Pinus radiata D. Don plantation in South Australia during a 4-month period from November 1993 to March 1994 (spring-summer). Fertilization and other silvicultural treatments during the first 8 years of the plantation produced trees ranging in diameter at a height of 1.3 m from...

متن کامل

Reduction in soil water availability and tree transpiration in a forest with pedestrian trampling

Many studies have reported tree growth reduction in forests with pedestrian trampling, implying a reduction of tree transpiration in such forests. We undertook observations of tree transpiration based on the heat-pulse method in a forest (Lithocarpus edulis) with pedestrian trampling. We prepared trampled and control plots in the forest. Tree transpiration in the trampled plot was reduced compa...

متن کامل

Measured and predicted changes in tree and stand water use following high-intensity thinning of an 8-year-old Eucalyptus nitens plantation.

We investigated changes in the pattern of water use of an 8-year-old Eucalyptus nitens (Deane and Maiden) Maiden plantation soon after thinning. Sap flow sensors using heat pulse technology were deployed across three stands thinned to a final density of 100, 250 or 600 trees ha-1 plus an unthinned control (1250 trees ha-1). Changes in the relationship between tree size and daily water use were ...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره   شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2017