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Soybean Radiation‐Use Efficiency as Influenced by Nonuniform Specific Leaf Nitrogen Distribution and Diffuse Radiation
Author(s) -
Sinclair Thomas R.,
Shiraiwa Tatsuhiko
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
crop science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.76
H-Index - 147
eISSN - 1435-0653
pISSN - 0011-183X
DOI - 10.2135/cropsci1993.0011183x003300040036x
Subject(s) - radiation , canopy , biology , biomass (ecology) , nitrogen , atmospheric sciences , distribution (mathematics) , botany , agronomy , optics , physics , mathematics , mathematical analysis , quantum mechanics
Radiation‐use efficiency (RUE) has proven to be an effective expression of the biomass accumulation capacity of crop canopies. Two factors that may influence RUE, however, are the N distribution among leaves in the canopy and the fraction of the diffuse component in the incident radiation. Radiation‐use efficiency was measured for soybean [ Glycine max (L.) Merr.] grown at Gainesville, FL, and Shiga, Japan, to examine the potential influence of these two factors on RUE. Radiation‐use efficiency was found to be substantially greater for soybean grown in Japan as compared with Florida. It was hypothesized that a greater fraction of incident diffuse radiation in Japan could explain much of the difference in RUE between the locations. In addition, a nonuniform specific leaf N distribution (SLN, g N m −2 ) was shown theoretically to enhance RUE. A comparison is presented between the experimental observations of RUE, and the RUE obtained by accounting for the nonuniform SLN distribution in soybean canopies and for hypothetical differences between locations in the diffuse radiation component.