How Plant Fluorescence Is Affecting Our Understanding Of Carbon Assimilation In A Changing Climate
Presenter: Patrick Neri1
Co-Author(s): Yang Song, Lianhong Gu, Tianyi Hu, Changpeng Fan, Xueyan Zhang
Advisor(s): Yang Song (UA Bio-ESM Lab)
1Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Arizona
The impact of terrestrial vegetative carbon sequestration in the climate-carbon feedback remains a primary uncertainty for predicting the future climate. The current methodology has had difficulty in modelling photosynthesis in situations with stressful climatic conditions. One major effort currently ongoing to improve this photosynthetic prediction is the better utilization of plant fluorescence. When plants are illuminated, parts of the complex systems that turn that light into energy radiate some of it back out in the far-red spectrum. This solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) is a detectable connection to the invisible assimilation of CO2 plants perform and has gathered much focus in the efforts to constrain and inform GPP estimates. I will offer a peek into the future of mechanistic modeling of photosynthesis and the potential benefits across several fields, such as food security and understanding ecosystem resilience to changing climate. Finally, by leveraging a technique that utilizes this phenomenon called PAM fluorescence, I will demonstrate an as-of-yet newly described temperature control on photosynthesis and what the tolerance and resilience of vegetation carbon sequestration might mean for terrestrial vegetation carbon assimilation in a changing climate.