Application of the sucrose inversion method to delineation of region-wide temperature patterns

Abstract

The sucrose inversion method is an inexpensive tool for estimating mean temperature. Heretofore, the method has been limited to use in ecological studies where field placement of samples and duration of exposure of all samples of sucrose solution could be identical. A procedure was developed to relax the restriction of simultaneous field placement and exposure. Michigan, where conventional weather station data are available, was used to test the suitability of the sucrose inversion method for wide-area ecological use. The procedure presented uses daily maximum and minimum temperature data from a reference weather station, as well as the amount of sucrose inverted, to estimate the mean temperature in the study environment. When applied to 596 sites throughout Michigan, uncorrected sucrose inversion estimates gave nonsensical estimates of mean temperatures for the growing season of 1983. Estimates using as few as four reference weather stations plus the amount of sucrose inverted at each sample site gave results on the same order of accuracy as weather station data.