Research works
Recent lab activities
Ecosystem Functions in Fog
The Chi-Lan Mountain (CLM) site receives an annual fog water deposition of more than 300 mm. The frequent foggy condition strongly reduces the solar radiation, increases the leaf wetness and soil water content. How the dominant species Chamaecyparis obtusa var. formosana survives this harsh environment remains unclear...
Resilience of human-affected ecosystems
Lowland landscapes in eastern Taiwan has been largely modified in its land-use types during the last 150 years. The Da-Nong-Da-Fu afforestation area is one of such landscapes in which the natural forests have been converted to sugarcane crops (1920-2000) and plantation of 30 broad-leaved tree species (2002-today). We are looking into the ecosystem resilience using modelling approach...
First trial of 3-D printing...
We assembled a DIY-set of 3-D printer and tested its functionality recently. The first printed stuff was a level-adjustable base for mounting quantum sensors. This base is composed of three parts, which were designed in Google SketchUp and individually printed. This home-made base works better than the purchased one for mounting quantum sensors in our automated leaf chambers.
January 2018
Chie-Yu Hong
Research assistant
3-D printer in action
Canopy LAI photography using UAV
Canopy structure, especially the leaf area index (LAI), has strong influence on ecosystem processes e.g. photosynthesis and transpiration. A commonly used method to monitor the seasonal pattern of LAI is the hemispherical photography using fisheye lens. We are testing a new approach by mounting a small-size sport camera (Nikon KeyMission 360) atop a 4-axis drone such that the canopy pictures could be taken in a more economic way.
Yun-Ju Huang
Undergraduate
January 2018
Man-Hsun Hsu
Undergraduate
In the test flights in campus, we flew the drone (DJI Phantom 4 Pro) through plantations in a fixed speed of 1 km/hr. The quality of the pictures was good enough for subsequent analysis. A comparison of the pictures with those taken by Nikon D7200 + Sigma 4.5 mm revealed similar values of calculated LAI.
CONFERENCES
AsiaFlux2019 - 20th Anniversary Workshop
September 29-October 5, 2019
Takayama, Japan
2019 SSE, TERN and
TaiwanFlux Joint Meeting
亞熱帶生態學學會、臺灣長期生態研究網、臺灣通量研究網 聯合年會
October 23-25, 2019
Hualien, Taiwan
NEWS
Nature Catalysis 1, 32–39 (2018)
doi:10.1038/s41929-017-0005-1
Technical photosynthesis involving CO2 electrolysis and fermentation
Scientists and engineers from German companies including Siemens have developed this high efficient CO2 electrolyser. This new technology can convert the troublesome greenhouse gas into butanol and hexanol.
nature NEWS
09 January 2018
Climate scientists unlock secrets of ‘blue carbon’
Blue carbon is the carbon stored in coastal wetlands. A recent study showed that the carbon concentration was almost the same for soil cores from around the US. The information may increase our understanding and prediction of global carbon storage.