Spring/Summer Update (2019/II): Optics of Photosynthesis Lab

OK, perhaps we were too optimistic… let’s say we will try to provide a quadrimestral update of Lab activities :). So what happened of late:

1/ Based on discussions during the recent FAST Workshop. We decided to establish and host the SIF-community mailing list. The list has now over 175 members from across the globe and can be used to disseminate papers, job adds, post SIF-related questions, etc… to subscribe you just need to send an email to majordomo@helsinki.fi with the following text: “subscribe SIF-community and-your-email-address”. You can also find further information in this link

2/ Publications: We have got a few great papers recently accepted and/or published!

In Atherton et al (2019) we present a new method to measure the full fluorescence spectra of plant canopies (e.g. a forest stand) in situ. You just need a powerful disco light! Furthermore, in Liu et al (2019) we assess the factors that contribute to the top-of-canopy fluorescence emission by combining the realistic 3D structure of a birch stand with ample empirical measurements. Both these papers are published open access in Remote Sensing of Environment. More recently, in Zhang et al (2019) we show how all fluorescence wavelenghts are capable of conveying the spring recovery of photosynthesis in evergreen Scots pine needles. Still, changes in the spectral shape, although small, can be highly informative!

3/ We recently conducted a small campaign here in Helsinki to collect a few more functional/optical/biochemical properties of boreal species. This data is to contribute to a future meta-analysis…we are just missing a few tropical species now 🙂

4/ Ongoing: We are working on a couple of our papers related to our 2018 Potato experiments, MoniPAM papers, drone SIF papers and of course preparing for Funding application rounds in September. Don’t forget to follow us on twitter too @Optphotolab

  (View to the Baltic Sea from Valli island, Vallisaari. Photo: Albert Porcar-Castell)

Summer regards from OPL!

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