Global and time-resolved monitoring of crop photosynthesis with chlorophyll fluorescence

Photosynthesis is the process by which plants harvest sunlight to produce sugars from carbon dioxide and water. It is the primary source of energy for all life on Earth; hence it is important to understand how this process responds to climate change and human impact. However, model-based estimates of gross primary production (GPP, output from photosynthesis) are highly uncertain, in particular over heavily managed agricultural areas. Recent advances in spectroscopy enable the space-based monitoring of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) from terrestrial plants. Here we demonstrate that spaceborne SIF retrievals provide a direct measure of the GPP of cropland and grassland ecosystems. Such a strong link…

• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Award: 08-SMAPSDT08-0042
• UD
  U.S. Department of Agriculture
• WM
  W. M. Keck Foundation
• CI
  California Institute of Technology
• KI
  Keck Institute for Space Studies
• AS
  Arizona State University
• UO
  University of Montana
• MU
  McGill University
• DF
  Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
• TU
  Technische Universität Dresden
• UD
  Université de Liège
• UZ
  Universität zu Köln
• SI
  Szent István Egyetem
• NO
  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• NA
  National Agricultural Statistics Service
• AN
  Argonne National Laboratory