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Title: Chlorophyll fluorescence tracks seasonal variations of photosynthesis from leaf to canopy in a temperate forest
Abstract

Accurate estimation of terrestrial gross primary productivity (GPP) remains a challenge despite its importance in the global carbon cycle. Chlorophyll fluorescence (ChlF) has been recently adopted to understand photosynthesis and its response to the environment, particularly with remote sensing data. However, it remains unclear how ChlF and photosynthesis are linked at different spatial scales across the growing season. We examined seasonal relationships between ChlF and photosynthesis at the leaf, canopy, and ecosystem scales and explored how leaf‐level ChlF was linked with canopy‐scale solar‐induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) in a temperate deciduous forest at Harvard Forest, Massachusetts,USA. Our results show that ChlF captured the seasonal variations of photosynthesis with significant linear relationships between ChlF and photosynthesis across the growing season over different spatial scales (R= 0.73, 0.77, and 0.86 at leaf, canopy, and satellite scales, respectively;P < 0.0001). We developed a model to estimateGPPfrom the tower‐based measurement ofSIFand leaf‐level ChlF parameters. The estimation ofGPPfrom this model agreed well with flux tower observations ofGPP(R= 0.68;P < 0.0001), demonstrating the potential ofSIFfor modelingGPP. At the leaf scale, we found that leafFq/Fm, the fraction of absorbed photons that are used for photochemistry for a light‐adapted measurement from a pulse amplitude modulation fluorometer, was the best leaf fluorescence parameter to correlate with canopySIFyield (SIF/APAR,R= 0.79;P < 0.0001). We also found that canopySIFandSIF‐derivedGPP(GPPSIF) were strongly correlated to leaf‐level biochemistry and canopy structure, including chlorophyll content (R= 0.65 for canopyGPPSIFand chlorophyll content;P < 0.0001), leaf area index (LAI) (R= 0.35 for canopyGPPSIFandLAI;P < 0.0001), and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) (R= 0.36 for canopyGPPSIFandNDVI;P < 0.0001). Our results suggest that ChlF can be a powerful tool to track photosynthetic rates at leaf, canopy, and ecosystem scales.

 
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NSF-PAR ID:
10036920
Author(s) / Creator(s):
 ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  
Publisher / Repository:
Wiley-Blackwell
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Global Change Biology
Volume:
23
Issue:
7
ISSN:
1354-1013
Page Range / eLocation ID:
p. 2874-2886
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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