Insights into the dielectric function of plant leaves under water stress

In this work, we present a practical approach combining experimental and theoretical analyses to assess water evaporation in Arabica coffee leaves. We examine continuously the changing water content of leaves through opti-cal reflectance spectroscopy and mass loss measurements, beginning from a fully saturated stage and extending beyond the turgor loss point. We establish a relationship between the current water content and the dielectric function, based on the changing of the molecular water dipoles inside the leaf due to evaporation.(c) 2023 Optica Publishing Group