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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Applications of Chlorophyll Fluorescence to Forest Ecology

MC Ball, JA Butterworth, JS Roden, R Christian, JJG Egerton, TJ Wydrzynski, WS Chow and MR Badger

Australian Journal of Plant Physiology 22(2) 311 - 319
Published: 1995

Abstract

Functioning of photosystem II (PSII) is the most sensitive indicator of environmental stress in plants. Changes in PSII activity can be assayed rapidly and non-destructively by measurement of chlorophyll fluorescence. While there have been many laboratory studies of chlorophyll fluorescence, fluorescence techniques have seldom been applied to questions in forest ecology. Most studies have emphasised the fluorescence parameter, Fv/Fm, which is well correlated with the quantum efficiency of photosynthetic carbon dioxide assimilation or oxygen evolution. This parameter reveals information which can be related to diurnal and seasonal variation in photosynthesis, plant growth and community dynamics. Thus, fluorescence techniques provide a powerful means of linking photosynthesis with higher levels of plant functioning and have great potential for research in forest ecology.

https://doi.org/10.1071/PP9950311

© CSIRO 1995

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