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Sensing of Photosynthetic Activity of Crops

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Book cover Precision Crop Protection - the Challenge and Use of Heterogeneity

Abstract

The light use efficiency of photosynthesis dynamically adapts to environmental factors and is one major factor determining crop yield. Optical remote sensing techniques have the potential to detect physiological and biochemical changes in plant ecosystems, and non-invasive detection of changes in photosynthetic energy conversion may be of great potential for managing agricultural production in a future bio-based economy. Here we give an overview on the principles of optical remote sensing in crop systems with a special emphasis on investigating hyperspectral reflectance data and the sun-induced fluorescence signal. Especially sun-induced fluorescence as a parameter, which becomes important in remote sensing research may have great potential quantifying the physiological status of the photosynthetic apparatus. Both remote sensing principles were applied during the CEFLES2 campaign in Southern France, where the structural and functional status of several crops was measured on the ground and using state-of-the-art optical remote sensing techniques. Sun-induced fluorescence measurements over a variety of crops showed that additional information can be retrieved also over dense canopies, where classical remote sensing signals often saturate. With a view to the future, we discuss how hyperspectral reflectance and sun-induced fluorescence can quantitatively be related to photosynthetic efficiency and help to measure and manage productivity of natural and agricultural ecosystems.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been made possible by the funding support of the ESA-projects (1) Technical Assistance for Airborne/Ground Measurements in support of Sentinel-2 mission during CEFLES2 Campaign (ESRIN/Contract No. 20801/07/I-LG) (2) Technical Assistance for Airborne/Ground Measurements in support of FLEX mission proposal during CEFLES2 Campaign (ESRIN/Contract No. 20802/07/I-LG) (3) FLEX Performance analysis and requirements consolidation study (ESTEC/Contract No. 21264/07/NL/FF). Additional financial and intellectual support was provided by the SFB/TR 32 ‘Patterns in Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere Systems: Monitoring, Modelling, and Data Assimilation’ – project D2, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Chemistry and Dynamics of the Geosphere, ICG-3: Phytosphere, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, D-52425, Germany

    Uwe Rascher & Roland Pieruschka

  2. Remote Sensing Laboratories, University of Zurich, Zurich, 8057, Switzerland

    Alexander Damm

  3. Geomatics Lab, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, D-10099, Germany

    Sebastian van der Linden, Akpona Okujeni & Patrick Hostert

  4. Institute for Geophysics and Meterology, Universität Köln, Köln, D-50937, Germany

    Anke Schickling

Authors
  1. Uwe Rascher
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  2. Alexander Damm
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  3. Sebastian van der Linden
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  4. Akpona Okujeni
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  5. Roland Pieruschka
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  6. Anke Schickling
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  7. Patrick Hostert
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Uwe Rascher .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Institute of Crop Science and Resource C, University of Bonn, Nussallee 9, Bonn, 53115, Germany

    Erich-Christian Oerke

  2. , Department of Weed Sciences, University of Hohenheim, Otto-Sanderstrasse 5, Stuttgart, 70599, Germany

    Roland Gerhards

  3. , Department of Geography, Remote Sensing, University of Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 166, Bonn, 53115, Germany

    Gunter Menz

  4. , Institute of Crop Science and Resource C, University of Bonn, Nussallee 9, Bonn, 53115, Germany

    Richard A. Sikora

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Rascher, U. et al. (2010). Sensing of Photosynthetic Activity of Crops. In: Oerke, EC., Gerhards, R., Menz, G., Sikora, R. (eds) Precision Crop Protection - the Challenge and Use of Heterogeneity. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9277-9_6

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