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

TLDR

Global food and biofuel production are vital, yet current crop photosynthesis model predictions are highly uncertain, and the upcoming expansion of fluorescence observation capabilities increases the relevance of this work. We demonstrate that space‑based chlorophyll fluorescence observations enable accurate, global, time‑resolved measurement of crop photosynthesis. Fluorescence emission, intrinsically linked to plant biochemistry, provides this measurement, which is not possible from other remote vegetation metrics. Our results show that chlorophyll fluorescence data can benchmark and improve global models, yielding more reliable projections of agricultural productivity and climate impacts on crop yields.

Abstract

Significance Global food and biofuel production and their vulnerability in a changing climate are of paramount societal importance. However, current global model predictions of crop photosynthesis are highly uncertain. Here we demonstrate that new space-based observations of chlorophyll fluorescence, an emission intrinsically linked to plant biochemistry, enable an accurate, global, and time-resolved measurement of crop photosynthesis, which is not possible from any other remote vegetation measurement. Our results show that chlorophyll fluorescence data can be used as a unique benchmark to improve our global models, thus providing more reliable projections of agricultural productivity and climate impact on crop yields. The enormous increase of the observational capabilities for fluorescence in the very near future strengthens the relevance of this study.