4.7 Article

Quantifying and manipulating the angles of light in experimental measurements of plant gas exchange

Journal

PLANT CELL AND ENVIRONMENT
Volume 45, Issue 6, Pages 1954-1961

Publisher

WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/pce.14309

Keywords

diffuse light; infra-red gas analysis; integrating sphere; LEDs; photosynthesis

Categories

Funding

  1. Grand Challenges Initiative at Chapman University
  2. USDA-NIFA [2020-67014-30916]

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This study quantified the angular distribution of light from common gas exchange systems and demonstrated the use of an integrating sphere for manipulating light distributions. The integrating sphere can create light environments that more closely mimic variations in sunlight. Different proportions of diffuse light have varying effects on photosynthetic rates in different plant species.
Diffuse light has been shown to alter plant leaf photosynthesis, transpiration and water-use efficiency. Despite this, the angular distribution of light for the artificial light sources used with common gas exchange systems is unknown. Here, we quantify the angular distribution of light from common gas exchange systems and demonstrate the use of an integrating sphere for manipulating those light distributions. Among three different systems, light from a 90 degrees angle perpendicular to the leaf surface (+/- 5.75 degrees) was <25% of the total light reaching the leaf surface. The integrating sphere resulted in a greater range of possible distributions from predominantly direct light (i.e., >40% of light from a 90 +/- 5.75 degrees angle perpendicular to the leaf surface) to almost entirely diffuse (i.e., light from an even distribution drawn from a nearly 0 degrees horizontal angle to a perpendicular 90 degrees angle). The integrating sphere can thus create light environments that more closely mimic the variation in sunlight under both clear and cloudy conditions. In turn, different proportions of diffuse light increased, decreased or did not change photosynthetic rates depending on the plant species observed. This new tool should allow the scientific community to explore new and creative questions about plant function within the context of global climate change.

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