John Gamon, a remote sensing researcher a the University of Alberta, Canada, will present the second lecture of SNR's 2012 Fall Seminar Series in the Hardin Hall auditorium Wednesday, Sept. 12 at 3:30 p.m. His lecture, "Sensing our multi-colored world—plant pigments as functional indicators," is free and open to the public.
Abstract
Plant pigments serve multiple functions, including attraction, light capture, and photoprotection. The primary focus will be on the balance between light capture and photoprotection in the context of photosynthetic carbon uptake. There will also be a brief review on the roles of plant pigments, and a discussion about the advantages and challenges of a remote sensing approach to assessing pigment content and function.
John Gamon received his Ph.D. in Botany at UC Davis. He received his postdoctoral training at Carnegie Institution of Washington, Department of Plant Biology (Stanford California), where he conducted the first experiments on the detection of the photoprotective xanthophyll cycle activity from remote sensing. Following his postdoc, he taught Biology at California State University Los Angeles for 18 years, and now holds a joint appointment in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Biological Science at the University of Alberta (Edmonton), where he conducts ecophysiological and remote sensing research on a variety of terrestrial ecosystems. Gamon co-founded SpecNet (Spectral Network), a collaboration of scientists and sites conducting optical and remote sensing measurements in conjunction with ecosystem carbon flux studies.