Improving the Estimation of Canopy Fluorescence Escape Probability in the Near-Infrared Band by Accounting for Soil Reflectance

Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) has been found to be a useful indicator of vegetation's gross primary productivity (GPP). However, the directional SIF observations obtained from a canopy only represent a portion of the total fluorescence emitted by all the leaf photosystems because of scattering and reabsorption effects inside the leaves and canopy. Hence, it is crucial to downscale the SIF from canopy level to leaf level by modeling fluorescence escape probability (fesc) for improved comprehension of the relationship between SIF and GPP. Most methods for estimating fesc rely on the assumption of a black soil background, ignoring soil reflectance and the effect of scattering between soils and leaves, which creates significant uncertainties for sparse canopies. In this study, we added a correction factor considering soil reflectance, which was modeled using the Gaussian process regression algorithm, to the semi-empirical NIRv/FAPAR model and obtained the improved fesc model accounting for soil reflectance (called the fesc_GPR-SR model), which is suitable for near-infrared SIF downscaling. The evaluation results using two simulation datasets from the Soil-Canopy-Observation of Photosynthesis and the Energy Balance (SCOPE) model and the Discrete Anisotropic Radiative Transfer (DART) model showed that the fesc_GPR-SR model outperformed the NIRv/FAPAR model, especially for sparse vegetation, with higher accuracy for estimating fesc (R2 = 0.954 and RMSE = 0.012 for SCOPE simulations; R2 = 0.982 and RMSE = 0.026 for DART simulations) compared with the NIRv/FAPAR model (R2 = 0.866 and RMSE = 0.100 for SCOPE simulations; R2 = 0.984 and RMSE = 0.070 for DART simulations). The evaluation results using in situ observation data from multi-species canopies also suggested that the leaf-level SIF calculated by the fesc_GPR-SR model tracked better with photosynthetic active radiation absorbed by green components (APARgreen) for sparse vegetation (R2 = 0.937, RMSE = 0.656 mW/m2/nm) compared with the NIRv/FAPAR model (R2 = 0.921, RMSE = 0.904 mW/m2/nm). The leaf-level SIF calculated by the fesc_GPR-SR model was less sensitive to observation angles and differences in canopy structure among multiple species. These results emphasize the significance of accounting for soil reflectance in the estimation of fesc and demonstrate that the fesc_GPR-SR model can contribute to further exploring the physiological mechanism between SIF and GPP.

Automated summary

This study emphasizes the importance of considering soil reflectance in estimating fluorescence escape probability (fesc) for downscaling solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) from canopy level to leaf level. The proposed fesc_GPR-SR model, accounting for soil reflectance, outperforms the traditional NIRv/FAPAR model in estimating fesc, especially for sparse vegetation. The evaluation results indicate that the leaf-level SIF calculated by the fesc_GPR-SR model tracks better with absorbed photosynthetic active radiation by green components (APARgreen). Therefore, accounting for soil reflectance can contribute to a better understanding of the physiological mechanism between SIF and gross primary productivity (GPP).