Re-absorption of chlorophyll fluorescence in leaves revisited. A comparison of correction models

Abstract

The application of correction methods to account for re-absorption of chlorophyll fluorescence emission in leaves is subject to a number of controversies in the literature. These uncertainties lead to high discrepancies in the corrected spectral distribution of fluorescence and consequently in the interpretation of related physiological features of plants, according to the chosen method used in the process of correction. In this research, three correction methods, based on transmittance and/or reflectance measurements on leaves, were analysed comparatively. One method gave high values for the corrected fluorescence ratio between 685 nm and 737 nm (F₆₈₅/F₇₃₇ ≈ 7 to 20 according to the different species of leaves). The two other methods were found to give similar results with corrected fluorescence ratios around a value of two (F₆₈₅/F₇₃₇ ≈ 2). While the first method was developed in the light of empirical considerations, the latter two models are based upon defined physical approaches depicting interaction between light and matter. The theoretical basis of these methods, the validation methodologies used to support them and the similarity in the spectra corrected by light re-absorption for both models, all showed that they should be treated as confident and suitable approximations to solve the problem of light re-absorption in leaves.