Towards Quantifying Forest Function Through Canopy Optical Signals

By converting solar energy into chemical energy, photosynthesis fuels nearly all life on Earth and mediates flows of carbon and water between the biosphere and the atmosphere. The future rates of ecosystem photosynthesis across the globe are highly uncertain under climate change. One major obstacle to reducing this uncertainty is our incomplete understanding of plant physiology, especially tree physiology, since forests take up vast amounts of carbon through photosynthesis. Biologically diverse tropical forests pose an additional challenge because of species-specific responses to environmental variation. Another challenge is extrapolating our fine scale understanding of photosynthesis in leaves to large scale estimates of productivity. Dr. Loren Albert will share challenges and opportunities for using canopy optical signals—empirical approaches for using leaf reflectance, and mechanistic approaches for using solar-induced fluorescence—to query tree physiology across spatial scales.

11:50 am- Snacks & Socializing
noon- Talk Begins