I am looking at oak regeneration in a disturbed forest. At what height do I measure PAR levels above the ground? Would 30cm (1 foot) be appropriate (a seedling grows upto 20-30cm on stored reserved from the acorn). As the forest floor has lots of bushes / undergrowth - the light levels would vary considerably at ground level and say a metre above ground. I note that various authors use different height to measure light. Thanks
Dear Rajesh, I think you are talking about the seedlings under forest canopy. Irrespective of place where they are growing, PAR should be measured above the canopy of the plants of your assessment and thus above the height of the seedlings. Naturally the PAR will be different below forest canopy and open areas.
Photosynthesis should be measured at levels of well expanded leaves usually the 3rd node from apical meristems to avoid senescence and sink-source error
Thanks very much Dr Rao, Abhishek and Caser. These are very useful pointers.
I agree with Dr Caser Ghaafar Abdel. I suggest you measure Chlorophyll a fluorescence, it is a good measure to assess plant vigor.
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