skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Impact of atmospheric dryness on solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence: Tower-based observations at a temperate forest
Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is widely accepted as a proxy for gross primary productivity (GPP). Among the various SIF measurements, tower-based SIF measurements allow for continuous monitoring of SIF variation at a canopy scale with high temporal resolution, making it suitable for monitoring highly variable plant physiological responses to environmental changes. However, because of the strong and close relationship between SIF and absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (aPAR), it may be difficult to detect the influence of environmental drivers other than light conditions. Among the drivers, atmospheric dryness (vapor pressure deficit, VPD) is projected to increase as drought becomes more frequent and severe in the future, negatively impacting plants. In this study, we evaluated the tower-based high-frequency SIF measurement as a tool for detecting plant response to highly variable VPD. The study was performed in a mixed temperate forest in Virginia, USA, where a 40-m-tall flux tower has been measuring gas and energy exchanges and ancillary environmental drivers, and the Fluospec 2 system has been measuring SIF. We show that a proper definition of light availability to vegetation can reproduce SIF response to changing VPD that is comparable to GPP response as estimated from eddy covariance measurement: GPP decreased with rising VPD regardless of how aPAR was defined, whereas SIF decreased only when aPAR was defined as the PAR absorbed by chlorophyll (aPARchl) or simulated by a model (Soil Canopy Observation, Photochemistry and Energy fluxes, SCOPE). We simulated the effect of VPD on SIF with two different simulation modes of fluorescence emission representing contrasting moisture conditions, ‘Moderate’ and ‘Soil Moisture (SM) Stress’ modes. The decreasing SIF to rising VPD was only found in the SM Stress mode, implying that the SIF-VPD relationship depends on soil moisture conditions. Furthermore, we observed a similar response of SIF to VPD at hourly and daily scales, indicating that satellite measurements can be used to study the effects of environmental drivers other than light conditions. Finally, the definition of aPAR emphasizes the importance of canopy structure research to interpret remote sensing observations properly.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2023205 2005574
PAR ID:
10540645
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Elsevier
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Remote Sensing of Environment
Volume:
306
Issue:
C
ISSN:
0034-4257
Page Range / eLocation ID:
114106
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Recently, solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is a promising tool to estimate gross primary production (GPP). Photosynthesis gradually saturates with the increasing light, but fluorescence tends to keep increasing, leading to a nonlinear SIF-GPP relationship. This nonlinearity occurs for sunlit leaves but not for shaded leaves for which photosynthesis is light-limited. However, the separation of sunlit and shaded SIF has not been systematically investigated when estimating GPP from SIF. Therefore, it is promising to develop a model for GPP estimation considering such differences. This study proposed an approach to separate the total canopy SIF emission (SIFtotal) from TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) SIF into their sunlit and shaded components (SIFsun and SIFshade). The nonlinearity and linearity in SIF-GPP relationships for sunlit and shaded leaves were incorporated into a two-leaf hybrid model, which was fitted using flux tower data and then evaluated using leave-one-site-out crossing validation. We also elucidated the distinct SIF-GPP relationships between sunlit and shaded leaves using the Soil-Canopy-Observation of Photosynthesis and the Energy balance (SCOPE) model simulation. Compared to previously used linear (R2 = 0.68, RMSE = 2.13 gC⋅m^-2*d^-1) or hyperbolic (R2 = 0.72, RMSE = 2.01 gC⋅m^-2⋅d^-1) model based on the big-leaf assumption, our proposed two-leaf hybrid model has the best performance on GPP estimation (R2 = 0.77, RMSE = 1.79 gC⋅m^-2⋅d^-1). We also applied this two-leaf hybrid model to estimate the global GPP during the main growing season in Northern Hemisphere, which were highly correlated with several existing GPP products, with R2 ranging from 0.79 to 0.88. These results will improve our understanding of the relationship between SIF and GPP for sunlit and shaded leaves and will advance application of satellite SIF data to GPP estimation. 
    more » « less
  2. Abstract The timing and progression of the spring thaw transition in high northern latitudes (HNL) coincides with warmer temperatures and landscape thawing, promoting increased soil moisture and growing season onset of gross primary productivity (GPP), heterotrophic respiration (HR), and evapotranspiration (ET). However, the relative order and spatial pattern of these events is uncertain due to vast size and remoteness of the HNL. We utilized satellite environmental data records (EDRs) derived from complementary passive microwave and optical sensors to assess the progression of spring transition events across Alaska and Northern Canada from 2016 to 2020. Selected EDRs included land surface and soil freeze‐thaw status, solar‐induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) signifying canopy photosynthesis, root zone soil moisture (RZSM), and GPP, HR, and ET as indicators of ecosystem carbon and water‐energy fluxes. The EDR spring transition maps showed thawing as a precursor to rising RZSM and growing season onset. Thaw timing was closely associated with ecosystem activation from winter dormancy, including seasonal increases in SIF, GPP, and ET. The HR onset occurred closer to soil thawing and prior to GPP activation, reducing spring carbon (CO2) sink potential. The mean duration of the spring transition spanned ∼6 ± 1.5 weeks between initial and final onset events. Spring thaw timing and maximum RZSM were closely related to active layer thickness in HNL permafrost zones, with deeper active layers showing generally earlier thawing and greater RZSM. Our results confirm the utility of combined satellite EDRs for regional monitoring and better understanding of the complexity of the spring transition. 
    more » « less
  3. Abstract Solar‐induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) has been increasingly used as a proxy for terrestrial gross primary productivity (GPP). Previous work mainly evaluated the relationship between satellite‐observed SIF and gridded GPP products both based on coarse spatial resolutions. Finer resolution SIF (1.3 km × 2.25 km) measured from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory‐2 (OCO‐2) provides the first opportunity to examine the SIF–GPP relationship at the ecosystem scale using flux tower GPP data. However, it remains unclear how strong the relationship is for each biome and whether a robust, universal relationship exists across a variety of biomes. Here we conducted the first global analysis of the relationship between OCO‐2 SIF and tower GPP for a total of 64 flux sites across the globe encompassing eight major biomes. OCO‐2 SIF showed strong correlations with tower GPP at both midday and daily timescales, with the strongest relationship observed for daily SIF at the 757 nm (R2 = 0.72,p < 0.0001). Strong linear relationships between SIF and GPP were consistently found for all biomes (R2 = 0.57–0.79,p < 0.0001) except evergreen broadleaf forests (R2 = 0.16,p < 0.05) at the daily timescale. A higher slope was found for C4grasslands and croplands than for C3ecosystems. The generally consistent slope of the relationship among biomes suggests a nearly universal rather than biome‐specific SIF–GPP relationship, and this finding is an important distinction and simplification compared to previous results. SIF was mainly driven by absorbed photosynthetically active radiation and was also influenced by environmental stresses (temperature and water stresses) that determine photosynthetic light use efficiency. OCO‐2 SIF generally had a better performance for predicting GPP than satellite‐derived vegetation indices and a light use efficiency model. The universal SIF–GPP relationship can potentially lead to more accurate GPP estimates regionally or globally. Our findings revealed the remarkable ability of finer resolution SIF observations from OCO‐2 and other new or future missions (e.g., TROPOMI, FLEX) for estimating terrestrial photosynthesis across a wide variety of biomes and identified their potential and limitations for ecosystem functioning and carbon cycle studies. 
    more » « less
  4. Solar-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF) can provide key information about the state of photosynthesis and offers the prospect of defining remote sensing-based estimation of Gross Primary Production (GPP). There is strong theoretical support for the link between SIF and GPP and this relationship has been empirically demonstrated using ground-based, airborne, and satellite-based SIF observations, as well as modeling. However, most evaluations have been based on monthly and annual scales, yet the GPP:SIF relations can be strongly influenced by both vegetation structure and physiology. At the monthly timescales, the structural response often dominates but short-term physiological variations can strongly impact the GPP:SIF relations. Here, we test how well SIF can predict the inter-daily variation of GPP during the growing season and under stress conditions, while taking into account the local effect of sites and abiotic conditions. We compare the accuracy of GPP predictions from SIF at different timescales (half-hourly, daily, and weekly), while evaluating effect of adding environmental variables to the relationship. We utilize observations for years 2018–2019 at 31 mid-latitudes, forested, eddy covariance (EC) flux sites in North America and Europe and use TROPOMI satellite data for SIF. Our results show that SIF is a good predictor of GPP, when accounting for inter-site variation, probably due to differences in canopy structure. Seasonally averaged leaf area index, fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fPAR) and canopy conductance provide a predictor to the site-level effect. We show that fPAR is the main factor driving errors in the linear model at high temporal resolution. Adding water stress indicators, namely canopy conductance, to a multi-linear SIF-based GPP model provides the best improvement in the model precision at the three considered timescales, showing the importance of accounting for water stress in GPP predictions, independent of the SIF signal. SIF is a promising predictor for GPP among other remote sensing variables, but more focus should be placed on including canopy structure, and water stress effects in the relationship, especially when considering intra-seasonal, and inter- and intra-daily resolutions. 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract Recent advances in satellite observations of solar‐induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) provide a new opportunity to constrain the simulation of terrestrial gross primary productivity (GPP). Accurate representation of the processes driving SIF emission and its radiative transfer to remote sensing sensors is an essential prerequisite for data assimilation. Recently, SIF simulations have been incorporated into several land surface models, but the scaling of SIF from leaf‐level to canopy‐level is usually not well‐represented. Here, we incorporate the simulation of far‐red SIF observed at nadir into the Community Land Model version 5 (CLM5). Leaf‐level fluorescence yield was simulated by a parametric simplification of the Soil Canopy‐Observation of Photosynthesis and Energy fluxes model (SCOPE). And an efficient and accurate method based on escape probability is developed to scale SIF from leaf‐level to top‐of‐canopy while taking clumping and the radiative transfer processes into account. SIF simulated by CLM5 and SCOPE agreed well at sites except one in needleleaf forest (R2 > 0.91, root‐mean‐square error <0.19 W⋅m−2⋅sr−1⋅μm−1), and captured the day‐to‐day variation of tower‐measured SIF at temperate forest sites (R2 > 0.68). At the global scale, simulated SIF generally captured the spatial and seasonal patterns of satellite‐observed SIF. Factors including the fluorescence emission model, clumping, bidirectional effect, and leaf optical properties had considerable impacts on SIF simulation, and the discrepancies between simulate d and observed SIF varied with plant functional type. By improving the representation of radiative transfer for SIF simulation, our model allows better comparisons between simulated and observed SIF toward constraining GPP simulations. 
    more » « less