Accurately assessing terrestrial gross primary productivity (GPP) is crucial for characterizing the climate-carbon cycle. Remotely sensing the photochemical reflectance index (PRI) across vegetation functional types and spatiotemporal scales has received increasing attention for monitoring photosynthetic performance and simulating GPP over the last two decades. The factors confounding PRI variation, especially on long timescales, however, require the improvement of PRI understanding to generalize its use for estimating carbon uptake. In this review, we summarize the most recent publications that have reported the factors affecting PRI variation across diurnal and seasonal scales at foliar, canopy and ecosystemic levels; synthesize the reported correlations between PRI and ecophysiological variables, particularly with radiation-use efficiency (RUE) and net carbon uptake; and analyze the improvements in PRI implementation. Long-term variation of PRI could be attributed to changes in the size of constitutive pigment pools instead of xanthophyll de-epoxidation, which controls the facultative short-term changes in PRI. Structural changes at canopy and ecosystemic levels can also affect PRI variation. Our review of the scientific literature on PRI suggests that PRI is a good proxy of photosynthetic efficiency at different spatial and temporal scales. Correcting PRI by decreasing the influence of physical or physiological factors on PRI greatly strengthens the relationships between PRI and RUE and GPP. Combining PRI with solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) and optical indices for green biomass offers additional prospects.

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Severe droughts strongly impact photosynthesis (GPP), and satellite imagery has yet to demonstrate its ability to detect drought effects. Especially changes in vegetation functioning when vegetation state remains unaltered (no browning or defoliation) pose a challenge to satellite-derived indicators. We evaluated the performance of different satellite indicators to detect strong drought effects on GPP in a beech forest in France (Hesse), where vegetation state remained largely unaffected while GPP decreased substantially. We compared the results with three additional sites: a Mediterranean holm oak forest (Puéchabon), a temperate beech forest (Hainich), and a semi-arid grassland (Bugacpuszta). In Hesse, a three-year reduction in GPP following drought was detected only by the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI). The Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI) also detected this drought effect, but only after normalization for absorbed light. In Puéchabon normalized PRI outperformed the other indicators, while the short-term drought effect in Hainich was not detected by any tested indicator. In contrast, most indicators, but not PRI, captured the drought effects in Bugacpuszta. Hence, PRI improved detection of drought effects on GPP in forests and we propose that PRI normalized for absorbed light is considered in future algorithms to estimate GPP from space.

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In Chinese medicine, fermentation is a highly important processing technology whereby medicinal herbs are fermented under appropriate temperature, humidity, and moisture conditions by means of the action of microorganisms to enhance their original characteristics and/or produce new effects. This expands the scope of such medicines and helps them to meet the stringent demands of clinical application. Since ancient times, Chinese medicine has been made into Yaoqu to reduce its toxicity and increase its efficiency. Modern fermentation technologies have been developed on the basis of traditional fermentation techniques and modern biological technology, and they can be divided into solid fermentation, liquid fermentation, and two-way fermentation technologies according to the fermentation form employed. This review serves as an introduction to traditional fermentation technology and its related products, modern fermentation technologies, and the application of fermentation technology in the field of Chinese medicine. Several problems and challenges facing the field are also briefly discussed.

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