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Being that my study aims to examine factors influencing the growth of tree branches, some pertinent areas of tree physiology may include photosynthesis, allometry and hormonal regulation. Naturally, these fields are all well documented in the scientific literature, and while I don’t expect to be breaking new ground in regards to vascular plant biology, I am excited to be broadening my personal knowledge base in this field, which I find more and more interesting the more research I do. I am quickly becoming appreciative of the fact that we are very privileged to live in a time where access to so much scientific knowledge is so readily available, in addition to rudimentary material for the budding student as well!
Even within the context of this course I am finding there to be some overlap with similar projects recently undertaken by fellow students. In particular, Doug’s study of insolation on species diversity has helped shed some light on the slope effect for me (pun intended).
While this blog post is supposedly on the theoretical perspectives of this project, I can’t help but ponder what possible practical angles it may hold as well. So far, the research I have done suggests that the measurement of biomass is a regular subject in the field of ecology, and is particularly of interest to the forestry and silviculture industries. The ability to manage biomass production is core to the practice silviculture and the better this process is understood the more effectively this process can be achieved.
Some tags that could be used to help identify this work could include Branch Growth, Sunlight, Pseudotsuga Menziesii and gymnosperm (one extra for good luck).
