This is the revolutionary new technique developed by researchers at the University of Sydney and NASA that shows the photosynthesis of plants on the planet.
The absorption of carbon dioxide by leaves and its conversion to sugars through photosynthesis, called gross primary production (GPP), is the fundamental basis of life on Earth and its quantification is vital for research on the dynamics of the carbon cycle. land.
This new study, published in the journal Science , uses satellite-based monitoring to measure the fluorescence of chlorophyll induced by the Sun, a by-product of photosynthesis in leaves.
The study also shows how these fluorescence measurements correlate with observations of GPP in the soil from various locations, areas of vegetation, and over various time periods.
This observed link between fluorescence and plant carbon dioxide uptake opens up many potential applications for this technique, such as recording climate change and analyzing ecosystems and biodiversity.
Study co-author and senior lecturer in the School of Environmental and Life Sciences Dr. Bradley Evans has collaborated with NASA’s David Schimel and his team to develop a more direct way to measure plant growth using the Observatory. Carbon Orbit 2 satellite.
According to Dr. Evans “the OCO2 satellite creates an incredible opportunity, particularly when we discover a significant relationship between plant fluorescence and satellite images.”
“We are very excited about our results and how they are one step closer to a quantitative estimate of photons of light resulting from photosynthesis.
“We hope that our results will help others better quantify carbon fluxes, so that we can understand more about Earth’s climate and ecosystem.”
Dr Evans’ research was enabled by the Sydney Informatics Hub (SIH), the Center for Basic Research at the University of Sydney dedicated to promoting open access research, data science and high performance computing capabilities.
“This work is a very impressive achievement, and publication in one of the world’s most prestigious journals shows the importance of these results,” according to Dietmar Müller, Director of SIH.
“It’s great to see how Sydney’s commitment to building world-class computing capacity is already beginning to enable our researchers to achieve great things.”
