CHAPTER 12 MEASUREMENTS WITH THE MINI-PAM
12 Chlorophyll Fluorescence Measurements
with the MINI-PAM
Chlorophyll fluorescence is a large signal and in principle its
measurement is rather simple. Hans Kautsky already observed
chlorophyll fluorescence changes by his bare eyes in 1931 and
suggested that these are related to photosynthesis. In the following
50 years, with the progress of modern electronics and photooptics,
highly sensitive and fast fluorometers were developed which
contributed substantially to the elucidation of the basic mechanisms
involved in the complex process of photosynthesis. Chlorophyll
fluorescence always has been a pioneering tool. Many aspects which
eventually were analyzed in great detail by more specific methods,
were first discovered by chlorophyll fluorescence measurements.
Such discoveries are still taking place, presently mostly at the level
of regulation of the complex photosynthesis process under the
control of changing environmental factors. This still is a widely open
field of plant science, as only recently the instrumentation and
methodology for in situ fluorescence measurements and analysis has
become generally available. Progress in this field of research has
been greatly stimulated by the invention of the Pulse-Amplitude-
Modulation (PAM) measuring principle (see section 12.2 below).
The first PAM-101 Chlorophyll Fluorometer, with its accessory
modules 102 and 103, as well as the PAM-2000 Portable
Fluorometer have been successfully used all over the world, as can
be judged from the large number of publications based on
investigations carried out with these instruments.
The MINI-PAM differs from the previously issued PAM
fluorometers in that it is further miniaturized and optimized in order
to perform one particular type of measurement with the greatest ease,
accuracy and reliability, namely the determination of the effective
quantum yield of photosynthetic energy conversion, ∆F/Fm', the so-
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