Study of the diurnal cycle of stressed vegetation for the improvement of fluorescence remote sensing

Chlorophyll fluorescence (Chf) emission allows estimating the photosynthetic activity of vegetation -a key parameter for the carbon cycle models- in a quite direct way. However, measuring Chf is difficult because it represents a small fraction of the radiance to be measured by the sensor. This paper analyzes the relationship between the solar induced Chf emission and the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) in plants under water stress condition. The solar induced fluorescence emission is measured at leaf level by means of three different methodologies. Firstly, an active modulated light fluorometer gives the relative fluorescence yield. Secondly, a quantitative measurement of the Chf signal is derived from the leaf radiance by using the Fraunhofer Line-Discriminator (FLD) principle, which allows the measurement of Chf in the atmospheric absorption bands. Finally, the actual radiance spectrum of the leaf fluorescence emission is measured by a field spectroradiometer using a device that filters out the incident light in the Chf emission spectral range. The diurnal cycle of fluorescence emission has been measured for both healthy and stressed plants in natural and simulated conditions. The main achievements of this work have been: (1) successful radiometric spectral measurement of the solar induced fluorescence; (2) identification of fluorescence behavior under stress conditions; and (3) establishing a relationship between full spectral measurements with the signal provided by the FLD method. These results suggest the best time of the day to maximize signal levels while identifying vegetation stress status.