A recurring analogy for photosynthesis research is the fable of the blind men and the elephant. Photosynthesis has many complex working parts, which has driven the need to study each of them individually, with an inherent understanding that a more complete picture will require systematic integration of these views. However, unlike the blind men, who are limited to using their hands, researchers have developed over the past decades a repertoire of methods for studying these components, many of which capitalize on unique features intrinsic to each. More recent concerns about food security and clean, renewable energy have increased support for applied photosynthesis research, with the idea of either improving photosynthetic performance as a desired trait in select species or using photosynthetic measurements as a phenotyping tool in breeding efforts or for high precision crop management. In this review, we spotlight the migration of approaches for studying photosynthesis from the laboratory into field environments, highlight some recent advances and speculate on areas where further development would be fruitful, with an eye towards how applied photosynthesis research can have impacts at local and global scales.

光合作用研究的一个反复出现的类比是盲人和大象的寓言。光合作用有许多复杂的工作部分，这促使需要单独研究它们中的每一个，并有一个内在的理解，即更完整的图片需要系统地整合这些视图。然而，与仅限于使用双手的盲人不同，研究人员在过去几十年中开发了一系列方法来研究这些组件，其中许多方法利用了每个组件固有的独特特征。最近对粮食安全和清洁、可再生能源的关注增加了对应用光合作用研究的支持，其想法是提高光合性能作为选定物种的理想特性，或者使用光合测量作为育种工作或高精度作物管理的表型工具。在这篇综述中，我们重点介绍了从实验室到野外环境研究光合作用的方法的迁移，强调了一些最近的进展，并推测了进一步发展将取得成果的领域，着眼于应用光合作用研究如何对当地和全球产生影响秤。