Speakers
Description
Vegetation stress and its impact on plant biology is postulated as an indicator of ground motion during an underground nuclear explosion (UNE); however, its scale, longevity and detectability remain unquantified. To expand the body of work on this topic, a laboratory experiment was performed to investigate the spectral response of leaves from three evergreen plant species from different biogeographical regions to mechanical stress: Monstera sp., Ficus elastica and Alocasia gagleana. Plants were grown under both artificial and natural lighting conditions, maintaining identical environmental parameters across treatments. Spectral reflectance measurements were recorded before and after applying mechanical stress to assess the short term and long term impact of mechanical stress. Short term measurements indicate a slight reduction in reflectance in water absorption bands (1450 nm, 1950 nm) which could indicate a change in the water balance of the plants as a response to mechanical stress. In the case of long-term measurements, the most significant difference is identified between (750 nm, 1350 nm). However, in the short and long term, observed changes are within the range of measurement uncertainty. Further statistical analysis and broader research across a wider range of plants is required to assess whether vegetation stress is a detectable indicator of an UNE.
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