In response to NASA's Earth Venture Instrument-2 call, we proposed the Earth Photosynthesis Imaging Constellation (EPIC) mission. With EPIC, we will, for the first time, be able to provide the scientific community with global, spatially, and temporally explicit estimates of Photosynthesis, also known as Gross Primary Production (GPP) directly from satellite observations. Understanding the significance of terrestrial GPP for the global carbon, water, and energy balance, as well as its spatiotemporal dynamics is one of the key goals of Earth system science. Our proposed method is based on first principles of plant physiology and radiative transfer theory and has been demonstrated by the science team members in theoretical and experimental research. We expect EPIC to fundamentally change and improve our understanding of global photosynthesis and provide entirely new avenues for modeling and predicting Earth system behavior globally.

Dark respiration measurements with open-flow gas exchange analyzers are often questioned for their low accuracy as their low values often reach the precision limit of the instrument. Respiration was measured in five species, two hypostomatous (Vitis Vinifera L. and Acanthus mollis) and three amphistomatous, one with similar amount of stomata in both sides (Eucalyptus citriodora) and two with different stomata density (Brassica oleracea and Vicia faba). CO2 differential (Delta CO2) increased two-fold with no change in apparent R-d, when the two leaves with higher stomatal density faced outside. These results showed a clear effect of the position of stomata on Delta CO2. Therefore, it can be concluded that leaf position is important to guarantee the improvement of respiration measurements increasing Delta CO2 without affecting the respiration results by leaf or mass units. This method will help to increase the accuracy of leaf respiration measurements using gas exchange analyzers. (C) 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Remote sensing of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is a novel optical tool for the assessment of terrestrial photosynthesis or gross primary production (GPP). Several recent studies have demonstrated the strong link between GPP and space-borne retrievals of SIF at broad scales. However, critical gaps remain between short-term small-scale mechanistic understanding and seasonal global observations. Here, we present a model-based analysis of the relationship between SIF and GPP across scales for diverse vegetation types and a range of meteorological conditions, with the ultimate focus on reproducing the environmental conditions during remote sensing measurements. The coupled fluorescence-photosynthesis model SCOPE is used to simulate GPP and SIF at the both leaf and canopy levels for 13 flux sites. Analyses were conducted to investigate the effects of temporal scaling, canopy structure, overpass time, and spectral domain on the relationship between SIF and GPP. The simulated SIF is highly non-linear with GPP at the leaf level and instantaneous time scale and tends to linearize when scaling to the canopy level and daily to seasonal. These relationships are consistent across a wide range of vegetation types. The relationship between SIF and GPP is primarily driven by absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR), especially at the seasonal scale, although the photosynthetic efficiency also contributes to strengthen the link between them. The linearization of their relationship from leaf to canopy and averaging over time is because the overall conditions of the canopy fall within the range of the linear responses of GPP and SIF to light and the photosynthetic capacity. Our results further show that the top-of-canopy relationships between simulated SIF and GPP have similar linearity regardless of whether we used the morning or midday satellite overpass times. Field measurements confirmed these findings. In addition, the simulated red SIF at 685 nm has a similar relationship with GPP as that of far-red SIF at 740 nm at the canopy level. These findings provide model-based evidence to interpret remotely sensed SIF data and their relationship with GPP. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Remote sensing of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is a novel optical tool for assessment of terrestrial photosynthesis or gross primary production (GPP). Along with the breakthroughs of global retrievals of SIF from space-borne sensors, exploitation of SIF in improving the representation of photosynthesis and its role in Earth System models became a very relevant and active field. Recent space-borne measurements of SIF can offer an observational constraint on photosynthesis simulations. Tailored to this special session, this presentation gives a discussion on recent advances in the retrievals of leaf biological traits from SIF, e.g., the maximum carboxylation rate (V-cmax), regarding the applications and problems.

Global estimates of terrestrial gross primary production (GPP) remain highly uncertain, despite decades of satellite measurements and intensive in situ monitoring. We report a new approach for quantifying the near-infrared reflectance of terrestrial vegetation (NIRV). NIRV provides a foundation for a new approach to estimate GPP that consistently untangles the confounding effects of background brightness, leaf area, and the distribution of photosynthetic capacity with depth in canopies using existing moderate spatial and spectral resolution satellite sensors. NIRV is strongly correlated with solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence, a direct index of photons intercepted by chlorophyll, and with site-level and globally gridded estimates of GPP. NIRV makes it possible to use existing and future reflectance data as a starting point for accurately estimating GPP.

This study evaluates the large-scale seasonal phenology and physiology of vegetation over northern high latitude forests (40 degrees-55 degrees N) during spring and fall by using remote sensing of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and observation-based estimate of gross primary productivity (GPP) from 2009 to 2011. Based on GPP phenology estimation in GPP, the growing season determined by SIF time-series is shorter in length than the growing season length determined solely using NDVI. This is mainly due to the extended period of high NDVI values, as compared to SIF, by about 46 days (+/- 11 days), indicating a large-scale seasonal decoupling of physiological activity and changes in greenness in the fall. In addition to phenological timing, mean seasonal NDVI and SIF have different responses to temperature changes throughout the growing season. We observed that both NDVI and SIF linearly increased with temperature increases throughout the spring. However, in the fall, although NDVI linearly responded to temperature increases, SIF and GPP did not linearly increase with temperature increases, implying a seasonal hysteresis of SIF and GPP in response to temperature changes across boreal ecosystems throughout their growing season. Seasonal hysteresis of vegetation at large-scales is consistent with the known phenomena that light limits boreal forest ecosystem productivity in the fall. Our results suggest that continuing measurements from satellite remote sensing of both SIF and NDVI can help to understand the differences between, and information carried by, seasonal variations vegetation structure and greenness and physiology at large-scales across the critical boreal regions. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Plants optimize carbon assimilation while limiting water loss by adjusting stomatal aperture. In grasses, a developmental innovation-the addition of subsidiary cells (SCs) flanking two dumbbell-shaped guard cells (GCs)-is linked to improved stomatal physiology. Here, we identify a transcription factor necessary and sufficient for SC formation in the wheat relative Brachypodium distachyon. Unexpectedly, the transcription factor is an ortholog of the stomatal regulator AtMUTE, which defines GC precursor fate in Arabidopsis. The novel role of BdMUTE in specifying lateral SCs appears linked to its acquisition of cell-to-cell mobility in Brachypodium. Physiological analyses on SC-less plants experimentally support classic hypotheses that SCs permit greater stomatal responsiveness and larger range of pore apertures. Manipulation of SC formation and function in crops, therefore, may be an effective approach to enhance plant performance.

Growth in terrestrial gross primary production (GPP)-the amount of carbon dioxide that is 'fixed' into organic material through the photosynthesis of land plants-may provide a negative feedback for climate change(1,2). It remains uncertain, however, to what extent biogeochemical processes can suppress global GPP growth(3). As a consequence, modelling estimates of terrestrial carbon storage, and of feedbacks between the carbon cycle and climate, remain poorly constrained(4). Here we present a global, measurement-based estimate of GPP growth during the twentieth century that is based on long-term atmospheric carbonyl sulfide (COS) records, derived from ice-core, firn and ambient air samples(5). We interpret these records using a model that simulates changes in COS concentration according to changes in its sources and sinks-including a large sink that is related to GPP. We find that the observation-based COS record is most consistent with simulations of climate and the carbon cycle that assume large GPP growth during the twentieth century (31% +/- 5% growth; mean +/- 95% confidence interval). Although this COS analysis does not directly constrain models of future GPP growth, it does provide a global-scale benchmark for historical carbon-cycle simulations.