Description

Understanding of the effect of climate change on ecosystems is of great importance. Policy makers in forestry in The Netherlands use information on the reliance of ecosystems to weather extremes in their forest management decisions. In this study, you will investigate how Douglas fir, a production tree, responds to weather conditions by means of analyzing field data collected with an innovative measurement system that is able to detect solar induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF), a weak signal originating from plants that is also observable with satellites.

Objectives and Methodology

The objective of this study is to analyze the response of Douglas fir trees to water and temperature stress and light fluctuations. This will be carried out by processing data measured with the Piccolo hyperspectral system. The Piccolo system is designed to measure solar induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) and reflectance of trees. You will analyze data collected at the Speulderbos research station, and study how the trees adjust their properties in response to environmental conditions including light, water and temperature fluctuations.

Further reading