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Annals of Botany 85 (Supplement B): 101-111, 2000
© 2000 Annals of Botany Company

Absorption of Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Radiation Use Efficiency and Spectral Reflectance of Bracken [Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kuhn] Canopies

John I. Pitman 1

1 Department of Geography, King's College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, UK

john.pitman{at}kcl.ac.uk

The seasonal development of a bracken canopy was measured over 7 years between 1980 and 1992. The object of the investigation was to relate the cumulative development of green above-ground biomass to cumulative absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR). During the vegetative phase, APAR was described by an empirical expression (Monski and Saeki, Japanese Journal of Botany 14: 22–32, 1953) relating APAR to frond area, with a canopy extinction coefficient of 0·6. Values of above-ground biomass were linearly related to cumulative APAR, and the averaged radiation use efficiency (RUE) was 2·77 g MJ-1, although there was variation from year to year. For above-ground carbon biomass, the average RUE was found to be 1·24 g C MJ-1. The fraction of absorbed PAR fAPAR was also shown to be non-linearly related to, and predictable from, a simple spectral reflectance ratio, RVI, by the relationship fAPAR = 0·0472 (±0·0017)RVI. Remote sensing RVI during the period of vegetative growth, either from satellite corrected data or from field spectroscopy, and its conversion to APAR, will enable bracken biomass to be estimated directly and non-destructively using the RUE found here.

Bracken growth, RUE, modelling, spectral reflectance, remote sensing, carbon content

Submitted on August 7, 1999
Revised on November 25, 1999
Accepted on December 15, 1999


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