From September 25th to 27th, a new collaborative group of scientists gathered at the scenic Warbrook House Heritage Hotel in Hook, UK, for the LEMONTREE Energy Partitioning Workshop. The goal? To make headway in creating a universal, testable model for understanding the seasonal dynamics of plant pigments and their pivotal role in photosynthesis. The event, organised by Dr Catherine Morfopoulos and Prof Iain Colin Prentice from Imperial College London, brought together experts from top institutions around the world. Their mission was to explore how recent advances in satellite data and models of photosynthesis can be combined to offer better insights into plant growth and climate regulation on a global scale. PI of the SPECIAL research group, Sandy Harrison, was invited to attend this exciting workshop.
The Energy Partitioning Workshop falls under the banner of the LEMONTREE project, which is one of the main scientific research endeavours the SPECIAL group contributes to. For specifics on why energy partitioning and pigments are relevant to building a new terrestrial biosphere model you can read an in-depth reflection regarding the workshop on the LEMONTREE website.
The LEMONTREE Energy Partitioning Workshop was not just a one-off event. The participants agreed to continue collaborating, with plans to meet again in person next year to keep the momentum going. One of the next major steps will be the development of a joint paper outlining the current state of knowledge, the available data, and the gaps that need to be filled to maximize the potential of upcoming satellite missions like FLEX.
This work aims to develop better tools for monitoring global photosynthesis, with direct implications for understanding the carbon cycle and predicting how ecosystems will respond to climate change. By bringing together cutting-edge research on plant pigments, photosynthesis, and satellite data, the LEMONTREE project is poised to make significant contributions to the field of Earth system science. Keep an eye on the LEMONTREE website for updates on these developments as they progress!
Figure 1: A workshop participant, Zbynek Malenovsky (University of Bonn), giving a presentation at the Energy Partitioning Workshop.