Evaluation of a portable chlorophyll meter to estimate chlorophyll concentrations in leaves of tropical wood species from Amazonian forest

Abstract

A portable chlorophyll meter can be an important tool to estimating chlorophyll contents in leaves of tree species under field conditions. The method is quick and non-destructive compared to the classic chemical methods of pigment extraction. The aim of this work was to evaluate the performance of a portable chlorophyll meter (CCM-200, Opti-Science) to estimate the concentrations of chloroplastid pigments and the fraction of photosynthetically active irradiance absorbed by leaves (α) in four tropical wood species from Amazonian forest. The results shown positive correlation between the chlorophyll contente index (CCI) readings and concentrations of Chl a (P < 0.0001; r² = 0.904), Chl b (P< 0.0001; r² = 0.803), Chl tot (P< 0.0001; r² = 0.923) and α (P< 0.0001; r² = 0.886), suggesting that the portable chlorophyll meter can be an effective tool for the relative estimation of chlorophyll concentrations and the fraction of the photosynthetically active irradiance absorbed by the leaves of tropical tree species.