Thermal Imaging of Plant Respiration Activity

Plants have various ways of responding environmental extremes such as drought and heat. One way is to open their stomata. These are like pores, usually found on the epidermis of leaves. They allow the plant to regulate its respiration. Water vapor will often diffuse through open stomata in a process called transpiration. In drought conditions the stomata will usually close. These changes changes can be detected using thermal cameras (as they cause small temperature changes within the plant). This opening and closing is controlled in part by abscisic acid (ABA), a hormone that is especially important in a plant’s response to environmental stresses such as drought, soil salinity, cold tolerance, heat stress and heavy metals. Recently I went to the IBMCP greenhouse with Gastón Alfredo, a post-doctoral researcher who studies ABA signaling, to take some thermal images of Nicotiana benthamiana (a close relative of the tobacco plant).