A Method to Assess Plant Behavior in Green Stormwater Infrastructure
Publication: Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment
Volume 8, Issue 3
Abstract
There has been a rise in interest to quantify evapotranspiration (ET) in green stormwater infrastructure (GSI), and to do so in easier and cheaper ways than full-scale research sites. This study evaluated using a leaf porometer to estimate ET from plants associated with GSI. The porometer measured water vapor as it transpired from a small portion of a leaf’s surface, which was compared to lysimeter-scale ET calculated via a mass balance method. Twelve vegetated lysimeters planted with black chokeberry, seaside goldenrod, or switchgrass were measured over time for stomatal conductance and lysimeter weight. Fairly strong and statistically significant correlations were observed between ET and stomatal conductance in the lysimeters growing black chokeberry and seaside goldenrod between June 12 and August 28, 2018 [, ]. This study demonstrates the utility of stomatal conductance in describing plant performance in GSI. Conveniently taken stomatal conductance measurements have the capability of being scaled up to describe ET at the GSI scale if they are paired with an approximation of total leaf area.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all of the data, models, or code used during the study were provided by a third party. Direct request for these materials may be made to the provider as indicated in the Acknowledgments.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Growing Greener Program, Villanova Center for Resilient Water Systems, and Villanova University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering for funding this work. The authors would also like to thank Shufang Ding for her assistance with data collection, Gerald Zaremba for his help and guidance with site instrumentation, and George Pappas for his help maintaining the site.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment
Volume 8 • Issue 3 • August 2022
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 5, 2021
Accepted: Jan 1, 2022
Published online: Mar 16, 2022
Published in print: Aug 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Aug 16, 2022
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