Canopy structural changes explain reductions in canopy-level solar induced chlorophyll fluorescence in Prunus yedoensis seedlings under a drought stress condition

Drought events have a major impact on vegetation structure and function. Recently, solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) has been widely used to understand the photosynthesis rates of vegetation under drought stress conditions. However, it is still unclear whether the reduction in SIF shown under drought stress conditions is regulated by physiological or structural factors. To understand the underlying reduction mechanism of SIF under drought stress, we conducted an experiment under a drought condition using one-year-old Prunus yedoensis seedlings. We compared the experiment trees with control trees that were not exposed to drought stress. We collected spectral and gas exchange data to monitor physiological changes and scanned the trees with a terrestrial laser scanner to monitor the structural changes. The discrete anisotropic radiative transfer (DART) and Fluspect models were us…