Decomposing reflectance spectra to track gross primary production in a subalpine evergreen forest

Cheng, Rui; Magney, Troy S.; Dutta, Debsunder; Bowling, David R.; Logan, Barry A.; Burns, Sean P.; Blanken, Peter D.; Grossmann, Katja; Lopez, Sophia; Richardson, Andrew D.; Stutz, Jochen; Frankenberg, Christian

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-4523-2020

Articles | Volume 17, issue 18

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-4523-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-4523-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 18

Research article

|

15 Sep 2020

Research article |

| 15 Sep 2020

Decomposing reflectance spectra to track gross primary production in a subalpine evergreen forest

Rui Cheng, Troy S. Magney, Debsunder Dutta, David R. Bowling, Barry A. Logan, Sean P. Burns, Peter D. Blanken, Katja Grossmann, Sophia Lopez, Andrew D. Richardson, Jochen Stutz, and Christian Frankenberg

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-4523-2020-supplement

Data sets

Hyperspectral reflectance at Niwot Ridge, Colorado 2017–2018 Rui Cheng, Christian Frankenberg, Troy Magney, Katja Grossmann, David Bowling, Sean Burns, Jochen Stutz, and Peter Blanken https://doi.org/10.22002/D1.1597

Canopy and needle scale fluorescence data from Niwot Ridge, Colorado 2017–2018 Troy Magney, Christian Frankenberg, David Bowling, Barry Logan, and Sean Burns https://doi.org/10.22002/D1.1231

Model code and software

Land CliMA https://github.com/climate-machine/LSM-SPAM

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Short summary

We measured reflected sunlight from an evergreen canopy for a year to detect changes in pigments that play an important role in regulating the seasonality of photosynthesis. Results show a strong mechanistic link between spectral reflectance features and pigment content, which is validated using a biophysical model. Our results show spectrally where, why, and when spectral features change over the course of the season and show promise for estimating photosynthesis remotely.