Date of Award

5-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Environmental Resources Engineering

Thesis Advisor

Christopher Somerlot

Thesis Advisor

Charles Kroll

Abstract

For thousands of years, humans have been extracting the sap of the sugar maple tree for use in many areas of life. The ability to predict, as a function of environmental conditions, the critical events, like the change in the flavor of maple sap, can be critical for the success and profitability for modern maple syrup production. Four models are developed to correlate the accumulation of heating and cooling over specified periods of time with the change in maple sap flavor at a maple operation in Attica, NY. Growing degree days and cooling degree days are used to simulate this heating and cooling accumulation. After testing the four models with varying date ranges, threshold/base temperatures, cooling accumulation thresholds, and heating start dates, the data suggests there is no significant correlation between heating and cooling accumulation and the flavor change of maple sap at this location.

Download

Share

COinS