ORNL executes license with Campbell Scientific for technology that monitors plant productivity and health
Logan, UT-based instrumentation firm Campbell Scientific Inc. has licensed technology developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to monitor plant productivity and health at wide scales.
Licensed non-exclusively to Campbell Scientific for commercial production, the technology measures solar-induced fluorescence, or SIF, which is emitted by plants during photosynthesis as they convert sunlight into chemical energy. ORNL’s Fluorescence Auto-Measurement Equipment, or FAME, platform uses a high-resolution spectrometer, a data logger, supporting devices and sensors, and a novel algorithm to analyze spectrum data to determine SIF levels across a wide area.
The platform was first developed and deployed by ORNL’s Lianhong Gu and colleagues at the Missouri Ozark Ameriflux site, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-supported experimental station where scientists use instruments on a 106-foot tower to measure carbon, water and energy balance in the region’s oak-hickory forests. FAME has been added to the DOE SPRUCE peatlands experimental site led by ORNL in northern Minnesota, and will soon be installed at DOE environmental research project sites in Brazil and Alaska.
Click here to read the full ORNL news release.
