Going With the Flow: Building a Sap Flux Sensor
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About Me
Hey everyone! My name is Corinne Byus (she/her) and I’m a double major in Biology and Environmental Studies. I am from Howard County, Maryland, but went to a boarding school in Vermont for high school. My time in VT and my interest in food systems have greatly influenced my passion for Ecology, specifically Agricultural Ecology. While at Macalester, I have had the opportunities to volunteer in the Burns lab at UMBC, to TA for Ecology & the Environment, and to work as a Research Intern at Cedar Creek LTER. With these experiences and my ecological curiosities, I will be pursuing a PhD in Agroecology. I hope to research how large-scale/commercial agriculture, in the United States, can become more renewable and sustainable by using environmentally sound land management practices. Outside of academics, I love knitting, baking, going on long walks and learning new skills. I have recently begun learning how to sew on a machine!
Abstract
This capstone is an overview of my final project from the Plant Ecophysiology (Biol 366) course I took in Fall 2025. During this project, my groupmates and I learned the intricacies of a Sap Flux Sensor by researching, building, and deploying one in the field. We worked to understand the principles behind its design, including the methods for heat dissipation and the relationship between temperature gradients and sap velocity. In plant physiology, these sensors are primarily used to measure the rate of sap flow through the xylem. The ability to track sap flow allows researchers to explore tree transpiration rates, water-related stress responses, and estimate CO2 transport. By linking physiological measurements to environmental variables such as temperature, humidity, and soil moisture, sap flux data can also help model ecosystem-level water cycling and improve predictions about plant responses to climate variability.
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