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Solar‐Induced Fluorescence Detects Interannual Variation in Gross Primary Production of Coniferous Forests in the Western United States
Author(s) -
Zuromski Lauren M.,
Bowling David R.,
Köhler Philipp,
Frankenberg Christian,
Goulden Michael L.,
Blanken Peter D.,
Lin John C.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2018gl077906
Subject(s) - primary production , evergreen , eddy covariance , environmental science , evergreen forest , ecosystem , atmospheric sciences , carbon cycle , productivity , chlorophyll fluorescence , normalized difference vegetation index , climatology , physical geography , ecology , climate change , geography , geology , chlorophyll , oceanography , macroeconomics , economics , biology , chemistry , organic chemistry
Quantifying gross primary production (GPP), the largest flux of the terrestrial carbon cycle, remains difficult at the landscape scale. Evergreen needleleaf (coniferous) forests in the western United States constitute an important carbon reservoir whose annual GPP varies from year‐to‐year due to drought, mortality, and other ecosystem disturbances. Evergreen forest productivity is challenging to determine via traditional remote sensing indices (i.e., NDVI and EVI), because detecting environmental stress conditions is difficult. We investigated the utility of solar‐induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) to detect year‐to‐year variation in GPP in four coniferous forests varying in species composition in the western United States (Sierra Nevada, Cascade, and Rocky Mountains). We show that annually averaged, satellite‐based observations of SIF (retrieved from GOME‐2) were significantly correlated with annual GPP observed at eddy covariance towers over several years. Further, SIF responded quantitatively to drought‐induced mortality, suggesting that SIF may be capable of detecting ecosystem disturbance in coniferous forests.