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D. Procedure for Measurement of Root Hair Density

  1. Follow the procedures for Root hair length measurements presented above, from step 1 through 7.
  2. In 3 d task, instead of selecting a line icon from the Scion Image Tools Menu, in the left of your computer screen, select square icon. Then you draw a reasonable area within root surface area, but capturing an area with a representative distribution of root hairs.
  3. Record the value of selected root surface area by hitting 1 while holding Apple key (or Control key, for Window users), each time you make a root hair measurement.
  4. Then, visually count the total number of roots within selected area. The number represents the root hair density, as number of root hairs per total root area selected.
  5. To see the complete sheet of recorded data, go to Analyze‡ Show Results. The results window will appear on the right upper side of the screen. Then you can copy this data to a spreadsheet program, like Excel.
  6. Transform the data (using arithmetic) to convert this value to number of roots per unit area you wish. (Usually, we use: number of root hairs per mm2).