Background

Dr. John Gamon, a prolific researcher overseeing numerous field research projects, pioneered the use of the relationship between leaf xanthophyll cycle pigment content and spectral reflectance to improve satellite monitoring of photosynthesis. Gamon's seminal work resulted in the development of the Photochemical Reflectance Index

Photochemical reflectance Index

The Photochemical Reflectance Index or PRI is a reflectance measurement developed by Dr. John Gamon. The PRI is sensitive to changes in carotenoid pigments in live foliage. Carotenoid pigments are indicative of photosynthetic light use efficiency, or the rate of carbon dioxide uptake by foliage...

 (PRI). He trained under Nobel Prize laureate Christopher Field

Christopher Field

Dr. Christopher Field is a scientist and researcher, who has contributed to the field of climate change. The author of more than 200 scientific publications, Field’s research emphasizes impacts of climate change, from the molecular to the global scale...

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Current Research

Gamon studies the "breathing of the planet" - the exchanges of carbon and water vapour between the biosphere and the atmosphere that affect ecosystem productivity and help regulate our atmosphere and climate. Of particular interest are the effects of disturbance (fires, succession, weather events and climate change) on these basic processes. Additional research questions involve the detection of plant physiology, ecosystem function, species composition, and biodiversity using non-contact sampling methods. Much of this work is done with optical monitoring (remote sensing and automated field methods), and entails the development of new monitoring methods and related informatics tools.

To encourage wider usage of these methods, Dr. Gamon co-founded SpecNet, (Spectral Network), a network of collaborating sites and investigators using optical sampling methods (particularly spectral reflectance) to study ecological questions. Dr. Gamon conducts fieldwork in a range of ecosystems from the Arctic to the Tropics.

Dr. Gamon plays Renaissance and folk violin, and is a professor at the University of Alberta

University of Alberta

The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...

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