Solar-induced Fluorescence as a Proxy for Canopy Photosynthesis in a Temperate Deciduous Forest: Comparisons between Observations and Model Results

Abstract:

Photosynthesis in the terrestrial ecosystems contributes to the largest carbon flux in the global carbon cycle. The use of solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) as a proxy of photosynthesis at the ecosystem scale (Gross Primary Production, GPP) is a critical emerging technology. Satellite measurements of SIF were found to be significantly correlated with GPP, and several ground campaigns suggested that SIF could improve the GPP estimation. However, it remains unclear to what extent this relationship is due to absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR) and/or light use efficiency (LUE). In addition, models that simulate SIF have not been rigorously validated. Here we present the first time-series of near-surface measurement of canopy-scale SIF at 760nm in temperate deciduous forests during year 2013-2014. SIF correlated with GPP estimated with eddy covariance at diurnal and seasonal scales (r²=0.82 and 0.73, respectively), as well as with APAR diurnally and seasonally (r²=0.90 and 0.80, respectively). SIF/APAR is significantly positively correlated with LUE and is higher during cloudy days than sunny days. Weekly tower-based SIF agreed with SIF from GOME-2 (The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2, r² = 0.82). We further compared SIF observations with those simulated by Soil Canopy Observation Photochemistry and Energy fluxes (SCOPE) model. We found that key parameters in SCOPE including V_cmax, LAI, chlorophyll content, and viewing angles determine the agreement between observations and model. Our results provide support to the use of SIF to estimate canopy photosynthetic activities, and present a framework of validating fluorescence simulated by canopy radiative transfer models.