Chlorophyll fluorescence, photochemical reflective index and normalized difference vegetative index during plant senescence.

Published in Journal of Plant Physiology, v. 199:100-110 
Authors

Cordon, G., Lagorio, M.G. and Paruelo, J.M.

Publication year 2016
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jplph.2016.05.010
Affiliations

 

  • IFEVA, Universidad de Buenos Aires, CONICET, Facultad de Agronomía, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Área de Educación Agropecuaria, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • INQUIMAE, Universidad de Buenos Aires, CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Dpto. de Química Inorgánica, Analítica y Química Física, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Dpto. de Métodos Cuantitativos y Sistemas de Información, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • IECA, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay

 

IAI Program

CRN3

IAI Project CRN3095
Keywords

Abstract

The relationship between the Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and chlorophyll fluorescence along senescence was investigated in this work. Reflectance and radiance measurements were performed at canopy level in grass species presenting different photosynthetic metabolism: Avena sativa (C3) and Setaria italica (C4), at different stages of the natural senescence process. Sun induced-chlorophyll fluorescence at 760 nm (SIF760) and the apparent fluorescence yield (SIF760/a, with a = irradiance at time of measurement) were extracted from the radiance spectra of canopies using the Fraunhofer Line Discrimination-method. The photosynthetic parameters derived from Kautsky kinetics and pigment content were also calculated at leaf level.

Whilst stand level NDVI patterns were related to changes in the structure of canopies and not in pigment content, stand level PRI patterns suggested changes both in terms of canopy and of pigment content in leaves. Both SIF760/a and &PhiPSII decreased progressively along senescence in both species. A strong increment in NPQ was evident in A. sativa while in S. italica NPQ values were lower. Our most important finding was that two chlorophyll fluorescence signals, &PhiPSII and SIF760/a, correlated with the canopy PRI values in the two grasses assessed, even when tissues at different ontogenic stages were present. Even though significant changes occurred in the Total Chlr/Car ratio along senescence in both studied species, significant correlations between PRI and chlorophyll fluorescence signals might indicate the usefulness of this reflectance index as a proxy of photosynthetic RUE, at least under the conditions of this study. The relationships between stand level PRI and the fluorescence estimators (&PhiPSII and SIF760/a) were positive in both cases. Therefore, an increase in PRI values as in the fluorescence parameters would indicate higher RUE.