J. Goudriaan

Modelling Diurnal Courses of Photosynthesis and Transpiration of Leaves on the Basis of Stomatal and Non-Stomatal Responses, Including Photoinhibition

A mathematical model for photoinhibition of leaf photosynthesis was developed by formalising the assumptions that (1) the rate of photoinhibition is proportional to irradiance; and (2) the rate of recovery, derived from the formulae for a pseudo first-order process, is proportional to the extent of inhibition. The photoinhibition model to calculate initial photo yield is integrated into a photosynthesis-stomatal conductance (gs) model that combines net photosynthetic rate (PN), transpiration rate (E), and gs, and also the leaf energy balance. The model was run to simulate the diurnal courses of PN, E, gs, photochemical efficiency, i.e., ratio of intercellular CO2 concentration and CO2 concentration over leaf surface (Ci/Cs), and leaf temperature (T1) under different irradiances, air temperature, and humidity separately with fixed time courses of others. When midday depression occurred under high temperature, gs decreased the most and E the least. The duration of midday depression of gs was the longest and that in E the shortest. E increased with increasing vapour pressure deficit (VPD) initially, but when VPD exceeded a certain value, it decreased with increasing VPD; this was caused by a rapid decrease in gs. When air temperature exceeded a certain value, an increase in solar irradiance raised T1 and the degree of midday depression. High solar radiation caused large decrease in initial photon efficiency (α). PN, E, and gs showed reasonable decreases under conditions causing photoinhibition compared with non-photoinhibition condition under high irradiance. The T1 under photoinhibition was higher than that under non-photoinhibition conditions, which was evident under high solar irradiance around noon. The decrease in Ci/Cs at midday implies that stomatal closure is a factor causing midday depression of photosynthesis.

Temperature sensitivity of photosynthesis in Lolium perenne swards: a comparison of two methods for deriving photosynthetic parameters from in vivo measurements

The seasonal variation in photosynthetic rate of grass swards is partly the result of changes in the environment and partly the result of changes in the photosynthetic capacity of the sward itself. We evaluated two types of photosynthesis equations regarding their capacity to analyse seasonal and short-term temperature effects on photosynthesis of ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.). Intact cores of a field-grown ryegrass sward were taken to the laboratory 10 d after cutting for measurement of photosynthesis under controlled conditions. This was done during two four-week periods, in summer and autumn. Net photosynthetic rate (PN) of the sward was lower in autumn than in summer. Both a simple negatively exponential photosynthesis irradiance-response curve and the Farquhar equations for photosynthesis were applied to the in vivo canopy measurements. Application of the irradiance-response curve showed that irradiance-saturated gross photosynthetic rate increased linearly with increasing temperature and was higher in summer than in autumn. The initial radiation use efficiency did not differ between the seasons but decreased with the temperature rise. This explains the observation that total canopy photosynthetic rate decreased after short-term temperature increases in both seasons. The parameters in Farquhar equations that represent the temperature sensitivity of the maximum electron transport rate and of the Michaelis-Menten constants for CO2 and O2 fixation could not be quantified satisfactorily. Parameterisation of the Farquhar equations was hampered by a lack of robust information on many biochemical parameters, and the use of simple empirical response-functions may be preferable in the case of in vivo canopy measurements on grass swards.