Chlorophyll Fluorescence ─ Understanding Crop Performance - Basics and Applications

Chlorophyll a fluorescence is a tool for evaluating plant responses to stress conditions. Fluorescence can be used in plant phenotyping and breeding programs to monitor stresses including mineral deficiencies, soil salinity, and pathogenic diseases. This book reviews a diversity of instruments available for recording and analyzing all types of light signals from plants. Chapters in the book cover photosynthesis, chlorophyll a fluorescence, measurements of fast fluorescent transients (JIP tests), delayed fluorescence in photosynthesis, measurements of light scattering, and examples of applications of chlorophyll a fluorescence in plant research.

Hazem M. Kalaji is a Polish plant physiologist of Syrian origin. He has more than 30 years of experiences in the field of photosynthesis and stress physiology. After finishing his study at The Faculty of Agriculture - Aleppo University (Syria), he got his PhD degree from Agriculture Faculty (recently, Faculty of Agriculture and Biology) at Warsaw Agricultural University-SGGW (recently, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SGGW). Recently, he is working as Associate Professor at the same university as a lecturer (Plant physiology; Yielding biology and biological progress; The use of computerized equipment in plant physiological studies and agricultural sciences; Physiology of crop yield; Biological progress and yield biology; Physiology of plants and its production under climate change; Photosynthetic crop productivity under unfavourable environmental conditions; Energy crops: a renewable energy source; Climate change impacts on plant growth and crop yield) and researcher (photosynthesis, chlorophyll fluorescence; abiotic and biotic stress; nutrient deficiency; climate change; crops production).

Hazem M. Kalaji has been working as international advisor and cooperates with more than 50 well known international institutes, laboratories and companies that develop instrumentations to be used in the field of plant physiology. He is working as Vice Cahir of MSCA at the Scientific Committee of European Union. He already published 4 books (in Polish, Italian and Russian) and more than 100 scientific papers. Besides, he is working as Associate Editor of Photosynthetica Journal and belongs to The Editorial Board of 7 international scientific journals. He organized many world-wide conferences and participated in more than 150 meetings, symposiums and seminars.

Vasilij Goltsev is a Professor at St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, Bulgaria. For 18 years he was The Head of the Department of Biophysics and Radiobiology, Faculty of Biology at University of Sofia. Prof. Goltsev dedicated more than 35 years towards research of light emission from plants and teaching biophysics, photobiology, biophysics of photosynthesis, mathematical modeling. His publications are in field of plant stress response and adaptation to adverse environmental, physical, chemical and biological factors. Along with his team he has been working on biophysical aspects of stress response of photosynthetic machinery and on development of a luminescent approach for multi-parametric estimation of the physiological state and stress reaction in plants at in vivo and in situ condition. V. Goltsev currently is in a member of Editorial Board of the following journals: Genetics and Plant Physiology, NanoPhotoBioSciences, Technology of Living Systems, Review Editor of the journal Agroecology and Land Use Systems.

Krystyna Zuk-Golaszewska (Ph.D. in agronomy) is the Associate Professor with 24-year research and didactic experience at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, the Department of Agrotechnology, Agricultural Production Management and Agribusiness, Poland. Her scientific activities are focused on tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses of agricultural crops (e.g. Lupinus luteus, Vicia faba, Pisum sativum, Trifolium pretense, Triticum spp., Hordeum vulgare) and medical plants (e.g. Trigonella foenum-graecum, Nigella sativa); organic farming system with ancient wheats; precision agriculture (legumes); and agricultural methods of biofortification (wheats). The integral part of her research is to determine the relation between agrotechnical factors of crop production and physiological parameters of plant growth and development associated with measurements and indices of photosynthetic efficiency, transpiration, water use efficiency, LAI, chlorophyll content, and others. She co-authored two chapters of the book "Organic Crop Husbandry"; serves as a member of Editorial Board of the Global Journal of Botanical Sciences and the Journal of Agri-Food and Applied Sciences; reviews scientific papers. The international research experience and skills has been gained in Canada (University of British Columbia, Vancouver – visiting professor), the Netherlands (Plant Research International, Wageningen – scholarship), and Israel (Volcani Center, Bet Dagan – traineeship). Her didactic works on agronomy subjects at the mother University have been accompanied with an international activity as visiting professor in Italian (University of Bologna, Faculty Science of Agriculture) and Armenian (Agrarian University in Yerevan) universities.