Environmental Diagnosis by Optical Measurements of Plant Growth

Abstract

Growing behavior of a plant is affected by surrounding environment to acclimate itself to environmental changes. Circumnutation accompanied by growth and nanometer-scale growing behavior of plants are investigated by optical methods: Digital Image Correlation and Statistical Interferometry, respectively. Variation of growth rate and its fluctuation in nanometer scale which affect growing condition of stem and root of plants sensitively were detected by statistical interferometry. A new indicator for environmental sensing is proposed.