Exploring the Potential of Spatially Downscaled Solar-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence to Monitor Drought Effects on Gross Primary Production in Winter Wheat

Abstract

The impacts of drought on the terrestrial gross primary production (GPP) are the most intense and widespread in all extreme climate events. Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is considered as a direct representative of actual vegetation photosynthesis and has better performance in monitoring vegetation conditions than greenness-based vegetation indices (VIs) during drought events. Based on the spatially downscaled SIF (SIFds), VIs and GPP products, we explored the potential of SIFds to monitor drought effects on GPP in winter wheat. First, the spatiotemporal dynamics of hydrometeorological factors and vegetation variables in winter wheat during drought events were observed. Then, the SIFds—GPP relationships in different phenological stages were examined in the rainfed area. Finally, the drought-induced GPP losses in different phenological stages were evaluated by scaling SIFds to GPP based on the linear SIFds–GPP relationship in the rainfed area. Results showed that SIFds could capture the spatiotemporal dynamics of drought-induced GPP variations in winter wheat during drought events, and it could quantify accurately the drought-induced GPP losses, with higher sensitivities to GPP changes during the vigorous growing periods. Our study reveals the applicability of SIFds to achieve regional agricultural drought detection and drought-induced GPP loss assessment, which can provide some help for crop adaptation management.

Keywords

• Agricultural drought
• gross primary production (GPP)
• phenology
• solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF)