Special issue in honour of Prof. Reto J. Strasser - Can we predict winter survival in plants using chlorophyll a fluorescence?

In the last years, JIP-test became to be a tool widely applied to assess the performance of photosynthetic apparatus of plants growing under environmental stresses. The objective of our work was to check whether JIP-test can help to predict winter survival in plants. An experiment with outdoor vertical garden was conducted in June 2015 on a south-oriented wall in Lublin city, Poland. Plants were cultivated in pockets made of polyester felt and irrigated by automatic controlled system. After winter period (2015/2016) only 16 species and cultivars from 23 initially planted taxa substantiated successful survival. Chlorophyll fluorescence measurements were performed twice in 2015 and six times in 2016. Survival rate of examined species did not show any significant correlation with performance indices of PSII (PIABS and PItotal) and parameters related to quantum yields. On the other hand, changes of some parameters related to specific energy fluxes per active reaction centres were found to be connected, to some extent, to plants winter survival. These changes could play a key role in plants ability to survive winter conditions.