It's not with a person, it's with a machine!I love and hate my LiCor 6400 photosynthesis meter!
It's a fabulous machine when it works, but this past week it hasn't been working too well. To the extent that the LiCor technical support on the phone know me by name now and I have the personal extension of one extremely helpful technician. Almost everyday this week I've loaded up my wagon and headed out to the Phragmites CO2xN chambers along the boardwalk. Some days I get some data but not very much, other days I don't get any data because the machine decides to be very temperamental. And I must admit when the machine decides to be temperamental, I get very frustrated!
It's a very spoilt machine that demands a cool and non humid atmosphere, thus it gets a fancy umbrella. Considering it has been above 90F and about 70% every single day this week, even with a sun-brella it's quite hard to keep this machine happy. Even though its standard in America to use Farenheit, in science we frequentky use Celcius. Its been about 34 to 36C outside this week, but I have to cool the leaves down to 30C. Cooling the air causes condensation in the chamber, causing the humidty to skyrocket, and the machine to stop working. Causing my work day to end whether I'm done or not! 
No comments:
Post a Comment