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Examining the spectral response of plants from data collected using remote sensing has a lot of potential for solving real-world problems in different fields of research. In this study, we have used the spectral property to identify the invasive plant Heracleum sosnowskyi Manden from satellite imagery. H. sosnowskyi is an invasive plant that causes many harms to humans, animals and the ecosystem at large. We have used data collected from the years 2018 to 2020 containing sample geolocation data from the Moscow Region where this plant exists and we have used Sentinel-2 imagery for the spectral analysis towards the aim of detecting it from the satellite imagery. We deployed a Random Forest (RF) machine learning model within the framework of Google Earth Engine (GEE). The algorithm learns from the collected data, which is made up of 12 bands of Sentinel-2, and also includes the digital elevation together with some spectral indices, which are used as features in the algorithm. The approach used is to learn the biophysical parameters of H. sosnowskyi from its reflectances by fitting the RF model directly from the data. Our results demonstrate how the combination of remote sensing and machine learning can assist in locating H. sosnowskyi, which aids in controlling its invasive expansion. Our approach provides a high detection accuracy of the plant, which is 96.93%.

Photosynthetic apparatus of a plant cell consists of multiple photosynthetic electron transport chains (ETC). Each ETC is capable of capturing and utilizing light quanta, that drive electron transport along the chain. Light assimilation efficiency depends on the plant’s current physiological state. The energy of the part of quanta that cannot be utilized, dissipates into heat, or is emitted as fluorescence. Under high light conditions fluorescence levels gradually rise to the maximum level. The curve describing that rise is called fluorescence rise (FR). It has a complex shape and that shape changes depending on the photosynthetic apparatus state. This gives one the opportunity to investigate that state only using the non invasive measuring of the FR.

When measuring fluorescence in experimental conditions, we get a response from millions of photosynthetic units at a time. In order to reproduce the probabilistic nature of the processes in a photosynthetic ETC, we created a Monte Carlo model of this chain. This model describes an ETC as a sequence of electron carriers in a thylakoid membrane, connected with each other. Those carriers have certain probabilities of capturing light photons, transferring excited states, or reducing each other, depending on the current ETC state. The events that take place in each of the model photosynthetic ETCs are registered, accumulated and used to create fluorescence rise and electron carrier redox states accumulation kinetics. This paper describes the model structure, the principles of its operation and the relations between certain model parameters and the resulting kinetic curves shape. Model curves include photosystem II reaction center fluorescence rise and photosystem I reaction center redox state change kinetics under different conditions.