Professor Lyn 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.