Modification of a gas exchange system to measure active and passive chlorophyll fluorescence simultaneously under field conditions

Solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) is a promising tool to estimate photosynthesis across scales; however, there has been limited research done at the leaf level to investigate the relationship between SIF and photosynthesis. To help bridge this gap, a LI-COR LI-6800 gas exchange instrument was modified with a visible-near-infrared (VIS-NIR) spectrometer to measure active and passive fluorescence simultaneously. The system was adapted by drilling a hole into the bottom plate of the leaf chamber and inserting a fibre-optic to measure passive steady-state fluorescence (Ft,λ, analogous to SIF) from the abaxial surface of a leaf. This new modification can concurrently measure gas exchange, passive fluorescence and active fluorescence over the same leaf area and will allow researchers to measure leaf-level Ft,λ in the field to validate tower-based and satellite measurements. To test the modified instrument, measurements were performed on leaves of well-watered and water-stressed walnut plants at three light levels and a constant air temperature. Measurements on these same plants were also conducted using a similarly modified Walz GFS-3000 gas exchange instrument to compare results. We found a positive linear correlation between Ft,λ measurements from the modified LI-6800 and GFS-3000 instruments. We also report a positive linear relationship between Ft,λ and normalized steady-state chlorophyll fluorescence (Ft/Fo) from the pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM) fluorometer of the LI-6800 system. Accordingly, this modification will inform the link between spectrally resolved Ft,λ and gas exchange-leading to improved interpretation of how remotely sensed SIF tracks changes in the light reactions of photosynthesis.