Terahertz spectroscopic monitoring and analysis of citrus leaf water status under low temperature stress

Abstract

Low temperature stress, in the form of chilling and freezing, is one of the major environmental factors impacting on citrus yield, which changes plant's water state and results in the crops' sub-health or injury. The innovative terahertz (THz) spectroscopy and imaging based sensing technology has been shown to be a suitable tool for plant leaf water status determination, due to THz radiation's innate sensitivity to hydrogen bond vibration in aqueous solutions, which is usually related to plant phenotype change. We demonstrate experimentally that the THz absorption coefficient of leaf could be used for distinguishing plant's physiological stress status, exhibiting clear decreasing or increasing trend under chilling or freezing stress respectively. The underlying rationale might be that membrane damage shows a diverse pattern, changing the intra- or extra-cellular liquid environments, likely being linked to the various THz spectral characteristics. There were different adaptations in leaf morphology, leading to different leaf density, which in turn affects the water volume fraction. Moreover, different patterns of the dynamic equilibrium state of free water and bound water under chilling and freezing treatment were revealed by THz spectroscopy. Here, THz spectroscopic monitoring has shown unique potential for judging citrus's low temperature stress state through bio-water detection and discrimination.

Keywords: Abiotic stress; Low temperature; Plant leaf; THz spectroscopy; Water sensing.