School of Life Sciences

University of Dundee

Professor Lyn Jones

The Adaptation of Plants to Environmental Stresses
Position: 
Emeritus Professor of Plant Ecology
Affiliation: 
Plant Sciences
Address: 
University of Dundee at JHI, Errol Road, Invergowrie, Dundee
Full Telephone: 
+44 (0) 844 928 5428, int ext
Email: 
Website: 
Jones Lab

Research

Use of thermal imagery to diagnose plant water stress: the left-hand Rhododendron shoot is non-transpiring with stomata closed while the cooler right-hand shoot is well watered. (Photograph Hamlyn Jones)My research focuses on remote sensing and the stress physiology and water relations of a wide range of temperate and tropical crops. The major emphasis of current research is on remote and proximal sensing of vegetation, with special emphasis on the monitoring and diagnosis of plant responses to environmental stresses for crop breeding and for management. Areas of interest include crop modelling, irrigation, tree establishment and breeding for drought and stress tolerance, with a strong emphasis on environmental biophysics and energy and mass transfer between plants and the environment.

Recent work has emphasised the development of thermal imaging and other remote sensing techniques for the study of plant stress at all scales from use of in-field cameras up to regional views from satellites. New approaches include the development of irrigation control systems based on thermal sensing.

Other areas of interest include studies of plant adaptation to low temperatures and the role of respiration and oxidative stress in stress tolerance, as well as the effects of climate change on plant distribution and on horticultural production. Work involves extensive international collaboration especially with scientists in both Canberra and Perth in Australia where we are evaluating thermal remote sensing as a tool for plant phenotyping and for irrigation scheduling and for the study of frost occurrence.

Thermal image of a vineyard with different irrigation treatments taken from a Blimp (collaboration with Ashley Wheaton (University of Melbourne) and Brian Loveys (CSIRO, Adelaide).

 

Publications

Brooker, R.W., Bennett, A.E., Cong, Wen-Feng, Daniel, T.J. George, T.S., Hallett, P.D., Hawes, C., Iannetta, P.P.M., Jones, H.G., Karley, A.J., Li, L., McKenzie, B.M., Pakeman, R.J., Paterson, E., Schöb, C., Shen, Jianbo, Squire, G., Watson, C.A, Zhang, Chaochun, Zhang, Fusuo, Zhang, Junling, & White, P.J. (2015) Improving intercropping: A synthesis of research in agronomy, plant physiology and ecology. New Phytologist, 107-117. 
Jones, H.G., Gordon, S.L. & Brennan, R.M. (2015) Chilling requirement of Ribes cultvars. Frontiers in Plant Science 5, Article 767 1-8 (doi: 10.3389/fpls.2014.00767 )
Jones, H.G. & Grant, O.M. (2015) Remote sensing and other imaging technologies to monitor grapevine performance In Grapevine in a changing environment: A molecular and ecophysiological perspective, Wiley eds. (Hernâni Gerós, Manuela Chaves, Hipolito Medrano and Serge Delrot)

Jones H.G. & Sirault X.R.R. (2014) Scaling of thermal images at different spatial resolution: the mixed pixel problem. Agronomy 4, 380-396 (doi:10.3390/agronomy4030380)

Prashar, A. & Jones, H.G. (2014) Infra-red thermography as a high throughput tool for phenotyping. Agronomy 4, 397-417 (doi: 10.3390/agronomy4030397)

Jones, H.G. (2014) Plants and microclimate: a quantitative approach to environmental plant physiology. 3rd Edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. ISBN 978-0-521-27959-8.

Prashar, A., Yildiz, J., Bryan, G.J., McNicol, J.W., Jones, H.G. (2013) Infra-red thermography for high throughput field phenotyping in Solanum tuberosum. PLoS ONE 8(6): e65816. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0065816

Jones H.G., Hillis, R.M., Gordon, S.L., Brennan, R.M. (2013) An approach to the determination of winter chill requirements applied to different Ribes cultivars. Plant Biology 15 (Suppl. 1), 18-27. doi:10.1111/j.1438-8677.2012.00590.x

Dietrich, R.C., Bengough, A.G., Jones, H.G., White, P.J. (2013) Can root electrical capacitance be used to predict root mass in soil? Annals of Botany 112: 457-464. doi:10.1093/aob/mct044

Dietrich, R.C., Bengough, A.G., Jones, H.G, White, P.J. (2012) A new physical interpretation of plant root capacitance. Journal of Experimental Botany, 63, 6149-6159 (doi:10.1093/jxb/ers264).

Munns, R., James, R.A., Sirault, X., Furbank, R., Jones, H.G. (2010) New phenotyping methods for screening wheat and barley for water stress tolerance. Journal of Experimental Botany 61, 3499–3507 (doi: 10.1093/jxb/erq199)