Chlorophyll Fluorescence Imaging for Crop Resilience Under Abiotic Stress

Abiotic stress physiology is a critical field within plant science, particularly as climate change and environmental degradation intensify the threats to global food security. Drought, salinity, extreme temperatures, and excess light are among the abiotic factors that increasingly limit crop yield by impairing the essential process of photosynthesis. Despite significant advancements in plant research, current methods for assessing photosynthetic stress often fail to capture the subtleties of early or spatially heterogeneous dysfunction, leaving a gap in timely and effective crop management or breeding decisions. In recent years, chlorophyll fluorescence imaging has emerged as a transformative approach, offering real-time, non-invasive insights into photosystem II efficiency across multiple scales. This technology has revolutionized our understanding of plant stress physiology, enabling the detection of stress responses well before visible symptoms manifest. Recent innovations in imaging systems, high-throughput phenotyping, and sophisticated data analysis—especially those leveraging artificial intelligence—have cemented chlorophyll fluorescence imaging as a linchpin for both basic research and applied agricultural solutions. However, there remains a pressing need to better integrate this technology in routine crop monitoring, breeding programs, and field applications, as well as to deepen our mechanistic understanding of the molecular and physiological origins of stress-induced fluorescence changes.This Research Topic aims to advance the use of chlorophyll fluorescence imaging as a cornerstone technique for characterizing plant responses to abiotic stresses, thereby directly supporting sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture. By fostering research that improves the sensitivity, spatial and temporal resolution, and throughput of stress detection methods, we encourage contributions that bridge fundamental photosynthesis research with tangible crop improvement applications. Specifically, this initiative seeks work that clarifies the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying chlorophyll fluorescence signals under stress, integrates fluorescence imaging with other phenotyping modalities, and demonstrates the practical implementation of these approaches for breeding and monitoring stress-tolerant cultivars. We are also interested in studies employing advanced image analysis and machine learning to drive automated, accurate, and reproducible stress assessments. Collaborative approaches involving plant physiologists, breeders, engineers, and data scientists are especially encouraged to accelerate the translation of research innovations into agricultural practice.The scope of this Research Topic is focused on leveraging chlorophyll fluorescence imaging to unravel the biological and practical aspects of plant stress responses, within a wide range of species, environments, and experimental scales. Submissions are not restricted by plant species or research setting, embracing studies from laboratory, greenhouse, and field contexts. To gather further insights in stress detection and crop resilience using chlorophyll fluorescence imaging, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• Novel protocols and instrumentation development for fluorescence-based stress phenotyping• Integration of fluorescence data with physiological, biochemical, and molecular analyses• Applications in high-throughput phenotyping in controlled environments and in the field• Utilization of advanced image analysis and machine learning for automated stress detection• Comparative genotypic assessments of fluorescence responses to specific abiotic stresses• Case studies linking fluorescence imaging to breeding and genetic improvement strategies• Real-world demonstrations of fluorescence monitoring contributing to crop performance and stress toleranceFrontiers in Plant Science welcomes original research articles, methods papers, and reviews that address these or related themes. Topic editors: Silvana Francesca, María Luisa Pérez-Bueno, Arun K. Shanker Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/76013/chlorophyll-fluorescence-imaging-for-crop-resilience-under-abiotic-stress