Development of a lightweight, portable, waterproof, and low power stem respiration system for trees.

Stem respiration is a quantitatively important, but poorly understood component of ecosystem carbon cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. However, a dynamic stem gas exchange system for quantifying real-time stem carbon dioxide (CO) efflux (E) is not commercially available resulting in limited observations based on the static method where air is recirculated through a stem enclosure. The static method has limited temporal resolution, suffers from condensation issues, requires a leak-free enclosure, which is often difficult to verify in the field, and requires physically removing the chamber or flushing it with ambient air before starting each measurement.