Diurnal and Seasonal Variations in Chlorophyll Fluorescence Associated with Photosynthesis at Leaf and Canopy Scales

Abstract

There is a critical need for sensitive remote sensing approaches to monitor the parameters governing photosynthesis, at the temporal scales relevant to their natural dynamics. The photochemical reflectance index (PRI) and chlorophyll fluorescence (F) offer a strong potential for monitoring photosynthesis at local, regional, and global scales, however the relationships between photosynthesis and solar induced F (SIF) on diurnal and seasonal scales are not fully understood. This study examines how the fine spatial and temporal scale SIF observations relate to leaf level chlorophyll fluorescence metrics (i.e., PSII yield, YII and electron transport rate, ETR), canopy gross primary productivity (GPP), and PRI. The results contribute to enhancing the understanding of how SIF can be used to monitor canopy photosynthesis. This effort captured the seasonal and diurnal variation in GPP, reflectance, F, and SIF in the O2A (SIFA) and O2B (SIFB) atmospheric bands for corn (Zea mays L.) at a study site in Greenbelt, MD. Positive linear relationships of SIF to canopy GPP and to leaf ETR were documented, corroborating published reports. Our findings demonstrate that canopy SIF metrics are able to capture the dynamics in photosynthesis at both leaf and canopy levels, and show that the relationship between GPP and SIF metrics differs depending on the light conditions (i.e., above or below saturation level for photosynthesis). The sum of SIFA and SIFB (SIFA+B), as well as the SIFA+B yield, captured the dynamics in GPP and light use efficiency, suggesting the importance of including SIFB in monitoring photosynthetic function. Further efforts are required to determine if these findings will scale successfully to airborne and satellite levels, and to document the effects of data uncertainties on the scaling.