Plant ecophysiology: Equipment

Equipment

We have a range of the latest equipment for plant ecophysiology research. These facilities equip us for field, glasshouse and laboratory studies. The range of equipment is continually growing so as to expand further our capabilities. For example, in conjunction with others within Biological Sciences we recently received a major equipment grant to set up a facility for the analysis of photosynthesis.

Gas exchange (photosynthesis) equipment

Li-Cor LI 6400 gas exchange and fluorescence system. This is used for measuring photosynthesis and transpiration of plants. More recently we have been using its capability of simultaneous gas exchange and fluorescence measurements to estimate the internal conductance to CO₂ transfer. It is field portable, but also spends a lot of time inside the lab and glasshouse.

Li-Cor LI 8100 soil respiration system with a 20-cm roving chamber. Recent modifications mean that we can also measure respiration of soil covered by snow.

measuring respiration of soil covered by snow

Portable gas exchange system for short-term measurements on grass/shrub ecosystems. It is being used to measure gas exchange of grass and shrub ecosystems, in particular their response to pulses of rainfall. Initial tests show that the system can measure incredibly small fluxes of CO₂ and H₂O.

The recent addition of a reflective cover means that we can also measure ecosystem respiration during the daytime.

portable gas exchange chamber for measuring ecosystem respiration

reflective cover for measuring ecosystem respiration

Analytical equipment

Gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer. The GC-MS is being used for ID and quantification of a range of small molecules. Most recently it has been used for quantifying uptake of ¹⁵N and ¹³C labelled amino acids. In the future it will be used for analysis of biomarker compounds.

Capillary electrophoresis system with UV-Vis and laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detectors. The system is used primarily to measure the concentrations of enzymes (e.g. Rubisco) and metabolites involved with photosynthesis. It offers a more quantitative alternative to SDS-PAGE of proteins and one of its primary uses is measuring the amount of Rubisco in leaves (Warren et al. 2000 [PDF 344 KB]).

Capillary electrophoresis is also being used for measurements of, inter alia, amino acids, sugars, organic acids (Warren & Adams 2000 [PDF 190 KB]). We are currently developing a method for rapid and highly sensitive measurement of amino acids in soil and plant extracts. In 10 minutes we can separate all of the common amino acids. The concentration limit of detection is better than 0.1 micromoles/L for all amino acids.

Multi-mode plate reader. It is used for high-throughput concentration and activity measurements via fluorescence Intensity, fluorescence polarization, luminescence and UV-visible absorbance. It measures 96-well plates and thus offers huge time-savings compared to a cuvette-based spectrophotometer.

Refrigerated centrifuge with rotors for 50-mL tubes, 15-mL tubes and microplates.

TissueLyser mixer mill for grinding samples. This may not be the most exciting piece of equipment, but it saves hours of time because it can process 48 samples at once. It has two primary use: grinding dry samples to a fine powder for subsequent analyses, and rapid extraction of samples with solvents or buffers

Refrigerated incubator that can hold temperatures between 5°C and 45°C. This incubator has been modified so that we can use it not only for lab incubations, but also for temperature controlled gas exchange measurements.

It's difficult getting excited about an oven, but this is actually a revolutionary piece of lab equipment for one simple reason: unlike 99% of lab equipment it is not (entirely) beige.