© 2003 Heron Publishing—Victoria, Canada
Chlorophyll content monitoring in sugar maple (Acer saccharum)
Thomas M. Cate (1, 2) and T. D. Perkins (1)
1. Proctor Maple Research Center, The University of Vermont, P.O. Box 233, Underhill Center, VT 05490, USA / 2. Author to whom correspondence should be addressed (tcate@zoo.uvm.edu) / Received October 17, 2002; accepted January 17, 2003; published online September 15, 2003
Summary
We conducted two experiments to determine the usefulness of a chlorophyll content meter (CCM) for the measurement of foliar
chlorophyll concentration in sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) in the fall color period. In Experiment 1, four sugar maple trees were visually assigned to each of four fall foliage
color categories in October 1998. On four dates in the fall of 1999, leaves were taken from the trees and analyzed for chlorophyll
concentration by absorbance of pigment extracts and by determination of the chlorophyll content index (CCI) with a CCM. The
two measures of chlorophyll concentration were strongly correlated (P < 0.001, r2 = 0.72).
In Experiment 2, the CCI of leaves from sugar maple trees subjected to one of four fertilization treatments (lime, lime +
manure, lime + 10:10:10 N,P,K fertilizer and an untreated control) were determined with a CCM. Treatment effects were distinguishable
between all pairwise comparisons (P < 0.001), except for the lime versus lime + NPK fertilizer treatments.
Keywords:
CCI, CCM, nondestructive testing, spectrophotometry.
