A number of years ago, I ran some laboratory experiments in a “fog box” to develop a relationship between voltage outputs from leaf wetness sensors and measured dew deposition on leaf samples (see some of my earlier posts on how I went about doing that). We wrote up a manuscript on our findings but we never ended up publishing, and as my interests shifted to geomorphology I lost motivation to pursue the work.

Thankfully, there are others more committed to the field. I was recently contacted by Cynthia Gerlein-Safdi, a PhD student at Princeton University working with Kelly Caylor (now at UC Santa Barbara). Cynthia had been collaborating with Sally Thompson (my Masters research advisor) on a dew deposition model. Cynthia used the findings from my fog box experiment to transform the voltage outputs of leaf wetness sensor data from the Blue Oak Ranch Reserve field station to actual water mass, and used the results to validate the model. The manuscript was just published and it’s pretty neat stuff, so check it out!