Woooo Data!

Well I've finally wired and programmed the sensors and I'm getting some sensible data from the data-logger! Yay. So here are a couple of graphs. As you can see when I added water to the capacitance sensor the capacitance increased and gradually decreased as it dried. And as expected the resistance decreased in the resistance sensor with the application of the same spray of water. Well these are just the first steps, I still have to get the other 2 sensors working and then move to the growth chambers for the real experiment.

Leaf wetness sensors

Here are three of the leaf wetness sensors I will be looking at. The dark green one is plastic coated, the middle one is a resistance sensor and I have sprayed it with a coating of latex paint, and the right sensor is a device which uses filter paper or felt to make the connection between the electrodes.
This is one of the data loggers I will be wiring up to collect the data from the sensors:
This is the stand I made last week on which to mount the sensors:
Here is my office space! More data loggers and bits and bobs for stands, batteries and other stuff:

USDA site and making sensor stands

Today was quite productive, I found some materials and tools in the workshop and having measured the growth chambers I built the first of 4 frames on which to mount the sensors that I shall be comparing. I have cut all the pieces of PVC piping to make all 4 frames but there were not enough joint fittings to get them all assembled. I've also now got my hands on all the datalogger boxes which are taking up a lot of space in the office so I'm not sure what my office mates think of that, but I've assured them that it is temporary. I'm going to try to wire them all exactly the same so that I can use the same program to collect all the data from each replication of the experiment. Unfortunately I have a midterm test on Friday morning so all of this exciting stuff will have to go on hold while I study for that.

Here is an image of where I work. If you look closely there are some tiny yellow numbers, 1 is where my office is, 2 is where Nik's office is and also the lab, 3 is my greenhouse, 4 is the workshop and 5 is the growth chamber building.

Oomycete Biology - an alternative version

following on from the post Oomycete biology, and alternative version by David Brock:

Phytophthora is the beautiful wife of the Greek tycoon Genius. A bunch of speculators work with the Genius plotting to overthrow the Pathogens, the economically significant supporters of Phytophthora. She is in love with Oomycetes (better known as Walter Mitty). With his sister Oomycota he escapes her by taking a taxi to Phylum in the Kingdom of Stramenophila, leaving her in the Kingdom of Fungi where she listens to classical music. The Fungi fight off Oomycetes who forever after is called Pseudofungi by the people of Fungi.

In Act II Queen Stramenophila, from her cell high above the Chitin, distinguishes Oomycetes far off, separates from her husband Septae and, to defeat Mycelial (who has deployed nuclear weapons), sends her servant Sporangia to Oomycetes with the key to her cell.

Unfortunately, Flagella, the composer, died before he could finish the work though notes for Act III suggest there was the usual hanky panky you get in opera.

And by Clare - by way of an update on my cultures, and inspired by David to use as much mycological jargon as possible:

Phytophthora cactorum and P. citricola are homothallic (they don’t need a partner) and therefore are individually prolific in their production of sexual oospores invitro. P. cinnamomi has produced a few chalymidospores (asexual resting spores) but refuses to produce any sporangia invitro without an offering of soil extract. P. cambivora is beginning to produce the sporangia desired for the preparation of zoospore inoculum to infect my rhododendrons. The others are still in the hyphal state but I have made some three plug plates in the hope that this may excite some of the isolates to reproduce. If not then further action must be taken to induce the production of sporangia.

Photos

New photos are arriving here.

The general plan so far

So far Nik and I have discussed rough plans for three projects to possibly result and a publication each and therefore form three chapters in my thesis.

One project will be to compare different leaf wetness sensors available (with the use of a weather station and data logger). This could result in a methods type paper.

Another project will be characterising the disease symptoms and comparing disease progress of various Phytophthora spp over the seasons of the year on Rhododendron starting in controlled environments and then moving to the field with non quarantine Phytophthora spp (this will also utilise weather station data which is an important consideration in epidemiology).

Finally a similar project but to looking at quarantine Phytophthoras such as P. ramorum and P. nemorosa so this work will not be in the field but in the quarantine chamber unless we set up a field station in an infected county in Oregon or California at a later date.

The first two projects are underway and I hope to complete the first in my first year.