A matter of perspective

In forest ecophysiology, we face a challenge in attempting to bridge the precision of leaf-scale measurements with the impact of the ecosystem scale. The smaller the system, the more precisely we can measure its microclimate and fluxes, and yet, the blurrier the bigger integrated picture of the forest gets. The radiation sensor atop the flux tower happened to capture this concept well, with the glass dome representing the fragile link between what we try to contain, versus what is outside of our interference.