Measurements of chlorophyll fluorescence in several plant species in different air pollution affected sites in Varanger, Northern Norway, compared with remote sensing data

The authors have used a portable plant stress meter for measuring the vitality in plants expressed as the F_v/F_m-ratio (the photochemical efficiency of photosystem II) of different plant species at different sites in Varanger, Northern Norway, compared with spectral signatures based on images from Landsat 5 TM data from 1988. The sites in Varanger are exposed for different air pollution contaminants like SO₂ and heavy metals like copper (Cu) and nickel (Ni) emitted from the copper-nickel processing industry in Nikel-Pechenga region, Kola Peninsula, Russia. One of the main results from this study concluded that there was a significant difference in F_v/F_m ratio, expressed as vitality, between spectral classes (spectral signatures measured on the maps and images) with low average spectral value (grey value) in TM-Band 4 (NIR) and spectral classes with higher spectral value (grey value) in TM-Band 4 (NIR), which also reflects vitality of the vegetation within the area.