Practical microclimatology. With special reference to the water factor in soil-plant-atmosphere relationships: R. O. Slatyer and I. C. McIlroy, UNESCO—Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Canberra, A.C.T., 1961, 335 pp., 41 illus., 14 tables (out of print)
✍ Scribed by Kenneth R. Knoerr
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1965
- Weight
- 205 KB
- Volume
- 2
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0002-1571
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
During 1959 and 1960 the authors provided a training course in "Arid Zone Microclimatology" sponsored by the UNESCO Arid Zone Program for scientists from Southern Asia and the Middle East. An outgrowth of that course, this book is designed as a manual on microclimatology for the participants and their co-workers. Oriented towards workers in plant physiology, ecology and soil science, the book is not intended to be a comprehensive text in micrometeorology. Instead it introduces the physically inclined plant scientist to the dynamic processes and energy relationships through which plants exchange water with their environment.
The authors' brief introductory chapter emphasizes the organization and purpose of their book. "The present treatment has a two-fold purpose. Firstly, it emphasizes physical principles, rather than attempting to provide a comprehensive or detailed catalogue of the various types of microclimate or plant response... Secondly, because of the vital importance of reliable measurements, particularly in the field, methods of determination of the more important quantities are discussed at length."
Utilizing about three-quarters of the book, five chapters cover the section on principles. The energy and water transfer processes of the microclimate are introduced in chapter 2. Intended to give the reader a feel for these processes this chapter is largely discussion. Mathematical formulations for everything except atmospheric stability and the wind profile are left for later chapters. Emphasis is placed on the interaction between vegetation and the wind profile in determining exchange coefficients for sensible and latent heat.
The process of evaporation and principles of its measurement, the author's main interest, are covered in chapter 3, the longest in the book. All principal measurement methods are considered from the simplest water balance bookkeeping to the sophisticated eddy flux determination. Emphasis is placed on lysimeters, soil moisture sampling, energy balance, and aerodynamic methods.
Use of the Bowen ratio is stressed in the energy balance method for separating fluxes of sensible and latent heat. Determination of the Bowen ratio is simplified by a new method for obtaining the vapor pressure difference, Ae, between two levels. From either a chart or table provided by the authors, Ae can be calculated quickly from differences between the dry bulb temperatures and wet bulb temperatures of the two levels. The method has the advantages of being both more rapid and accurate than when using standard psychrometric tables.
A combined energy balance and aerodynamic method developed by McIlroy is also considered in detail. While similar to other combination methods such as