Study of plant fluorescence properties based on laser-induced chlorophyll fluorescence lifetime imaging technology

Abstract

Plant fluorescence is a susceptible signal in plant fluorescence remote sensing detection. In order to solve this problem, a technique for plant chlorophyll fluorescence lifetime imaging is presented to evaluate living status for plant growth and environmental monitoring. A concave lens is used to expand laser beam at a wavelength of 355 nm, and the living plant is exposed in this laser light source to excite chlorophyll fluorescence. And the chlorophyll fluorescence signals are detected by an intensification charge coupled device. Time resolved measurement method is used in this article, so that every time the same fluorescence signals can be excited by the same laser pulse. Meanwhile, the delay time needed for triggering intensification charge coupled device should be changed consecutively, and the whole discrete fluorescence signal can be obtained. The discrete fluorescence signals from the particular location points of the plant are fitted. An improved method of forward iterative deconvolution is used to retrieve the corresponding fluorescence lifetime, and the high-precision fluorescence lifetime can be obtained. Furthermore, the fluorescence lifetime values at all the location points are retrieved to obtain the distribution map of chlorophyll fluorescence lifetime. This method can give the chlorophyll fluorescence image efficiently. The distribution map of fluorescence lifetime can more effectively reflect the plant chlorophyll concentration than the fluorescence intensity image does. The physical property of chlorophyll fluorescence lifetime from living plants has been studied preliminarily, indicating that the plant physiological status is related to its fluorescence lifetime to a certain extent; and the chlorophyll fluorescence lifetime and plant environment have a subtle and complex correlation. In the future, the relationship between chlorophyll fluorescence lifetime and plant environment will be expected to study with the cooperation of biophysicist.