Hi, I am conducting a studying on hibernating ground squirrels are we are interested in measuring change in plant moisture to evaluate whether timing of hibernation is correlated with when particular plants dry out for the summer. We would like some way to measure change in plant moisture from June - August. We plan to measure moisture on a handful of different plants that are important within these squirrel's diets and are found at all of our sites.
We have looked into using pressure chambers but they are quite expensive. Has anyone used one of these? Do they work with both forbs and grasses? We are located fairly remotely so we do not have access to a lab. Has anyone air dried plants and measured change in mass between fresh and dry samples? Would this hold up to peer review if we publish our data? Are there other methods that we should consider? Thank you, Amanda Please feel free to email me directly at: [email protected]
