Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Jun;230(5):1746-1753.
doi: 10.1111/nph.17321. Epub 2021 Apr 2.

Imaging canopy temperature: shedding (thermal) light on ecosystem processes

Affiliations
Free article
Review

Imaging canopy temperature: shedding (thermal) light on ecosystem processes

Christopher J Still et al. New Phytol. 2021 Jun.
Free article

Erratum in

  • Corrigendum.
    Detto M, Griffith DM, Hawkins L, Helliker BR, Page GFM, Pau S, Rastogi B, Schulze M, Still CJ. Detto M, et al. New Phytol. 2022 Feb;233(4):1966. doi: 10.1111/nph.17927. Epub 2021 Dec 30. New Phytol. 2022. PMID: 34967021 No abstract available.

Abstract

Canopy temperature Tcan is a key driver of plant function that emerges as a result of interacting biotic and abiotic processes and properties. However, understanding controls on Tcan and forecasting canopy responses to weather extremes and climate change are difficult due to sparse measurements of Tcan at appropriate spatial and temporal scales. Burgeoning observations of Tcan from thermal cameras enable evaluation of energy budget theory and better understanding of how environmental controls, leaf traits and canopy structure influence temperature patterns. The canopy scale is relevant for connecting to remote sensing and testing biosphere model predictions. We anticipate that future breakthroughs in understanding of ecosystem responses to climate change will result from multiscale observations of Tcan across a range of ecosystems.

Keywords: canopy structure; canopy temperature; leaf metabolism; remote sensing; stress; thermal imaging.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Anderegg WR, Ballantyne AP, Smith WK, Majkut J, Rabin S, Beaulieu C, Birdsey R, Dunne JP, Houghton RA, Myneni RB et al. 2015. Tropical nighttime warming as a dominant driver of variability in the terrestrial carbon sink. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 112: 15591-15596.
    1. Aubinet M. 2008. Eddy covariance CO2 flux measurements in nocturnal conditions: an analysis of the problem. Ecological Applications 18: 1368-1378.
    1. Aubrecht DM, Helliker BR, Goulden ML, Roberts DA, Still CJ, Richardson AD. 2016. Continuous, long-term, high-frequency thermal imaging of vegetation: uncertainties and recommended best practices. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 228: 315-326.
    1. Ballester C, Jiménez-Bello MA, Castel JR, Intrigliolo DS. 2013. Usefulness of thermography for plant water stress detection in citrus and persimmon trees. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 168: 120-129.
    1. Bernacchi CJ, Singsaas EL, Pimentel C, Portis AR Jr, Long SP. 2001. Improved temperature response functions for models of Rubisco-limited photosynthesis. Plant, Cell & Environment 24: 253-259.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources