Assessing Drought Responses Using Thermal Infrared Imaging

Canopy temperature, a surrogate for stomatal conductance, is shown to be a good indicator of plant water status and a potential tool for phenotyping and irrigation scheduling. Measurement of stomatal conductance and leaf temperature has traditionally been done by using porometers or gas exchange analyzers and fine-wire thermocouples attached to the leaves, which are labor intensive and point measurements. The advent of remote or proximal thermal sensing technologies has provided the potential for scaling up to leaves, plants, and canopies. Thermal cameras with a temperature resolution of <0.1 K now allow one to study the temperature variation within and between plants. This chapter discusses some applications of infrared thermography for assessing drought and other abiotic and biotic stress and outlines some of the main factors that need to be considered when applying this to the study of leaf or canopy temperature whether in controlled environments or in the field.