Monitoring the Variability of Water Dynamics in Plant Leaves at Cellular Level Using Terahertz Sensing

Abstract

The growing aridification has posed huge challenges in the agriculture sector, and effective use of water resourcesisvital to timely growth of plantsleaves to maintain healthy physiology, and for precision agriculture applications. This paper presents a nowl and simple THz sensing technique to monitor the water content (WC) of three fresh leaves for continuously four days in the frequency range of 0.75 to 1.1 THz by determining the electromagnetic parameter. The weights of all three leaves were also measured for consecutiw four days. By observing absorption coefficient, an upward trend was noticed with increasing frequency from day 1 to 4. However, absorption coefficient was found to be high on day 1 due to the presence of high WC in leaves and as days passed, the loss was evidently reduced due to the evaporation of WCinleaves. Upon close analysis, the results demonstrated a strong correlation of absorption coeffi cient with WC of leaves.