Area-ratio Fraunhofer line depth (aFLD) method approach to estimate solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence in low spectral resolution spectra in a cool-temperate deciduous broadleaf forest.

Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) emissions were estimated by the "area-ratio Fraunhofer line depth (aFLD) method", a new retrieval methodology in spectra from a low spectral resolution (SR) spectroradiometer (MS-700: full width half maximum (FWHM) of 10 nm and spectral sampling interval of 3.3 nm), assisted with a scaling to reference SIF detected from high SR spectrum. The sparse pixels of a spectrum of low SR misses detecting the minimum of the O2A absorption band around at 760 nm, which makes the SIF detection by conventional FLD methods lose accuracy considerably. To overcome this, the aFLD method uses the definite integral of spectra over a wide interval between 750 and 780 nm. The integration of the spectrum is insusceptible to the change in shape of the depression curve, leading to higher accuracy of the aFLD method. Daily SIF, calculated by the aFLD method using the spectra obtained with MS-700, was scaled to reference daily SIF calculated by the spectral fitting method using the spectra obtained from August to December 2019 with an ultrafine SR spectroradiometer (QE Pro, FWHM = 0.24 nm). As a result, SIF calculated from MS-700 spectra by aFLD method was strongly correlated with the reference SIF from QE Pro spectra (r2 = 0.81) and was successfully scaled. Then, the scaled 11-year SIF from MS-700 at a deciduous broadleaf forest showed the correlation with GPP at multiple time steps: daily, monthly, and yearly, consistently during 2008-2018. The comparison of aFLD-derived SIF with the global Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) SIF data set (GOSIF) showed high correlation on monthly values during 2008-2017 (r2 = 0.85). The combining approach of the aFLD method with a scaling to reference SIF successfully detected long-term canopy SIF emissions, which has great potential to provide essential information on ecosystem-level photosynthesis.

Isotopic compositions of ground ice in near-surface permafrost in relation to vegetation and microtopography at the Taiga-Tundra boundary in the Indigirka River lowlands, northeastern Siberia.

The warming trend in the Arctic region is expected to cause drastic changes including permafrost degradation and vegetation shifts. We investigated the spatial distribution of ice content and stable isotopic compositions of water in near-surface permafrost down to a depth of 1 m in the Indigirka River lowlands of northeastern Siberia to examine how the permafrost conditions control vegetation and microtopography in the Taiga-Tundra boundary ecosystem. The gravimetric water content (GWC) in the frozen soil layer was significantly higher at microtopographically high elevations with growing larch trees (i.e., tree mounds) than at low elevations with wetland vegetation (i.e., wet areas). The observed ground ice (ice-rich layer) with a high GWC in the tree mounds suggests that the relatively elevated microtopography of the land surface, which was formed by frost heave, strongly affects the survival of larch trees. The isotopic composition of the ground ice indicated that equilibrium isotopic fractionation occurred during ice segregation at the tree mounds, which implies that the ice formed with sufficient time for the migration of unfrozen soil water to the freezing front. In contrast, the isotopic data for the wet areas indicated that rapid freezing occurred under relatively non-equilibrium conditions, implying that there was insufficient time for ice segregation to occur. The freezing rate of the tree mounds was slower than that of the wet areas due to the difference of such as soil moisture and snow cover depends on vegetation and microtopography. These results indicate that future changes in snow cover, soil moisture, and organic layer, which control underground thermal conductivity, will have significant impacts on the freezing environment of the ground ice at the Taiga-Tundra boundary in northeastern Siberia. Such changes in the freezing environment will then affect vegetation due to changes in the microtopography of the ground surface.

Effect of floods on the δ13C values in plant leaves: a study of willows in Northeastern Siberia.

Although stable carbon isotopic composition (δ13C) of plants has been widely used to indicate different water regimes in terrestrial ecosystems over the past four decades, the changes in the plant δ13C value under waterlogging have not been sufficiently clarified. With the enhanced global warming in recent years, the increasing frequency and severity of river floods in Arctic regions lead to more waterlogging on willows that are widely distributed in river lowland. To investigate the δ13C changes in plants under different water conditions (including waterlogging), we measured the δ13C values in the leaves of willows with three species, Salix boganidensis, S. glauca, and S. pulchra, and also monitored changes in plant physiology, under several major flooding conditions in Northeastern Siberia. The foliar δ13C values of willows varied, ranging from -31.6 to -25.7‰ under the different hydrological status, which can be explained by: (i) under normal conditions, the foliar δ13C values decrease from dry (far from a river) to wet (along a river bank) areas; (ii) the δ13C values increase in frequently waterlogged areas owing to stomatal closure; and (iii) after prolonged flooding periods, the δ13C values again decrease, probably owing to the effects of not only the closure of stomata but also the reduction of foliar photosynthetic ability under long period of waterlogging. Based on these results, we predict that plant δ13C values are strongly influenced by plant physiological responses to diverse hydrological conditions, particularly the long periods of flooding, as occurs in Arctic regions.