A Comparative Study of Internal Light Environment in Bifacial Leaves of Different Plants

Abstract

Parameters of light propagation in plant leaves — absorption and scattering coefficients, asymmetry of scattering — have been estimated on the basis of measured transmission and emission as well as internal fluxes. This estimation has been carried through by solving the inverse problem of the 4-flux radiative transfer — a theory considering forward and backward diffuse as well as directed components of the overall radiation in a multiple scattering sample. Using the gained parameters, light flux gradients in a two-layered model leaf have been calculated at different wavelengths. Monte Carlo simulation of absorption spectra performed with the parameters obtained with this treatment is in a good agreement with experimental spectra, thus substantiating the theory. Parallel calculations with the two-flux (Kubelka-Munk) theory provide an estimation of the accuracy and applicability of this more simple treatment. Calculations have been performed for three different plants: Catalpa bignonioides, Tilia americana and Vitis riparia.