Miniature External Sapflow Gauges and the Heat Ratio Method for Quantifying Plant Water Loss.

External sapflow sensors are a useful tool in plant ecology and physiology for monitoring water movement within small stems or other small plant organs. These gauges make use of heat as a tracer of water movement through the stem and can be applied in both a laboratory and a field setting to generate data of relatively high temporal resolution. Typical outputs of these data include monitoring plant water use on a diurnal time scale or over a season (, in response to increasing water deficit during drought) to gain insight into plant physiological strategies. This protocol describes how to construct the gauges, how best to install them and some expected data outputs.