Field procedure

1. Identify the tree

2. Take the circumference in centimeters to find tree age (use online generator)

3. Take photo of the leaf,branch,bark

4. Randomly Gather 3 leaves per tree

5. Sample 4 trees per location

Lab Procedure

1. Paint a thick coat of nail polish on the entire leaf  underside of leaf

2. Let the nail polish dry

3. Put a piece of tape of the coat and press down on it(be careful not to put fingerprint on the tap or slide)

4. Gently remove the tape

5. Tape the leaf impression to a clean microscope slide

6. Put the microscope slide onto the microscope  

7. Focus the microscope on the leaf impression (magnification level x400)

8. Once you get the leaf impression in focus, count the stomata and move to two more areas on the slide and record the total count down

9. Calculate the average number of stomates of the three areas

10. Then repeat steps 6-14 for the others trees