Biochemical constrains limit the potential of the photochemical reflectance index as a predictor of effective quantum efficiency of photosynthesis during the winter spring transition in Jack pine seedlings
Florian Busch A B D E , Norman P. A. Hüner A and Ingo Ensminger A CA Department of Biology and The BIOTRON, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada.
B Institute of Chemistry and Dynamics of the Geosphere ICG-III: Phytosphere, Research Centre Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
C Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Mississauga, ON L5 L 1C6, Canada.
D Present address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3B2, Canada.
E Corresponding author. Email: florian.busch@utoronto.ca
Functional Plant Biology 36(11) 1016-1026 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP08043
Submitted: 5 March 2009 Accepted: 21 September 2009 Published: 5 November 2009
Abstract
Leaf reflectance spectral measurements are an emerging non-invasive technique that can be used to derive the photochemical reflectance index (PRI) to assess the physiological state of plants from leaf to ecosystem level. Changes in PRI are associated with changes in the xanthophyll cycle activity and provide an estimate of changes in the effective photochemical quantum efficiency (ΦII) during the growing season. However, we hypothesised that the correlation between PRI and ΦII might be poor when the xanthophyll cycle is primed for sustained thermal dissipation of the light energy absorbed. To test our hypothesis, we studied the recovery of winter acclimated Jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) seedlings that were exposed to different simulated spring recovery treatments in controlled environments. Different growth temperatures and light intensities were used to dissect the effect of these two factors on chlorophyll fluorescence, pigment composition and leaf reflectance. ΦII showed a clear response to temperature whereas PRI was mostly affected by light intensity. In contrast, the de-epoxidation state of the xanthophyll cycle pigments was both temperature and light dependent. Our data suggest that zeaxanthin-independent non-photochemical quenching is employed to various degrees in the different treatments. As a result, within the limits of our experimental setup, PRI could not explain the variation in ΦII. This indicates that an improved understanding of the different energy quenching mechanisms is critical to accurately interpret the PRI signal under environmental conditions where the predominant mode of excess energy dissipation does not involve a dynamic operation of the xanthophyll cycle, but a sustained mechanism of energy dissipation.
Additional keywords: chlorophyll a fluorescence, dehardening, PRI, xanthophyll cycle, zeaxanthin.
Acknowledgements
We thank Lawrence B. Flanagan for providing us with the spectroradiometer as well as Rebecca Zener for assisting with the data collection. We are also grateful to Heather Coiner and three unknown reviewers who provided helpful comments that greatly improved the quality of the manuscript. I.E. was supported by a Marie-Curie fellowship of the EU (PhysConFor, contract no. MOIF-CT-2004–002476). Financial support from NSERC and Canada Foundation for Innovation to N.P.A.H. is gratefully acknowledged.
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