TY - JOUR
T1 - From sunlight to seed
T2 - Assessing limits to solar radiation capture and conversion in agro-ecosystems
AU - Rattalino Edreira, Juan I.
AU - Mourtzinis, Spyridon
AU - Azzari, George
AU - Andrade, José F.
AU - Conley, Shawn P.
AU - Lobell, David
AU - Specht, James E.
AU - Grassini, Patricio
N1 - Funding Information:
Authors acknowledge the North-Central Soybean Research Program (NCSRP), Nebraska Soybean Board, and Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board for their support to this project. We also thank Adam C. Roth (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Shaun N. Casteel (Purdue University), Ignacio A. Ciampitti (Kansas State University), Hans J. Kandel (North Dakota State University), Peter M. Kyveryga (Iowa Soybean Board), Mark A. Licht (Iowa State University), Laura E. Lindsey (The Ohio State University), Daren S. Mueller (Iowa State University), Seth L. Naeve (University of Minnesota), Emerson D. Nafziger (University of Illinois), Jordan Stanley (North Dakota State University), Michael J. Staton (Michigan State University Extension), University of Nebraska Extension Educators, Nebraska Natural Resource Districts, and Iowa Soybean Association for helping collect the producer data. Finally, we thank Lim Davy, Agustina Diale, Juan Pedro Erasun, Laurie Gerber, Clare Gietzel, Mariano Hernandez, Ngu Kah Hui, Caleb Novak, Juliana de Oliveira Hello, Pedro Rocha Pereira, Matt Richmond, and Paige Wacker for inputting and cleaning the survey data. We thank Dr. Larry Purcell (University of Arkansas) and Nicolas Cafaro la Menza (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) for sharing ancillary data from van Roekel and Purcell (2014) and from Cafaro La Menza (2019); Cafaro La Menza et al. (2017) studies, respectively. We also thank Drs. Victor Sadras (PIRSA-SARDI, Australia) and Francisco Villalobos (IAS-CSIC, Spain) for their useful comments about the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2020/1/15
Y1 - 2020/1/15
N2 - Yield depends upon the amount of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) absorbed by the crop during the growing season and its conversion into harvestable biomass. Little is known about attainable and actual efficiencies involved in absorbing incident PAR (ea) and converting it into yield (ec) in producer fields. We developed a novel approach consisting of producer data, satellite imagery, and crop modelling to assess ea and ec in agro-ecosystems. Simulated phenology and satellite imagery were used to estimate incident (IPAR) and absorbed (APAR) PAR during the crop season for 3096 soybean fields sown across the US North Central region during 2014–2016. Quantile regression was used to derive upper limits for ea and ec and multiple-regression analysis was performed to identify biophysical drivers of the observed variation in these two efficiencies. Differences in weather, soil, and management resulted in a wide range in crop cycle length (58–126 d), total IPAR (580–1250 MJ m−2), and seed yield (0.8–6.3 Mg ha−1). The relationship between yield and total APAR was curvilinear, indicating marginal yield gains in the upper APAR range. Attainable ea represented 65% of total IPAR, while attainable ec ranged from 0.6 to 1.2 g seed MJ−1 depending upon total APAR. Average producer ea and ec were 14 and 29% below their attainable efficiencies. Average efficiency in converting IPAR into yield was 0.8%, with an upper limit of 1.1% derived from the 95th percentile of the field data distribution. Although weak, relationships between efficiencies and meteorological factors such as IPAR, temperature, water balance, and diffuse radiation were consistent with previous literature. There was a strong trade-off between ec and ea indicating that maximizing both efficiencies simultaneously was not possible in producer fields. Our approach can be used to determine attainable and actual efficiencies in capturing and converting radiation into yield, set realistic yield limits, and understand relationships between producer yield and management practices.
AB - Yield depends upon the amount of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) absorbed by the crop during the growing season and its conversion into harvestable biomass. Little is known about attainable and actual efficiencies involved in absorbing incident PAR (ea) and converting it into yield (ec) in producer fields. We developed a novel approach consisting of producer data, satellite imagery, and crop modelling to assess ea and ec in agro-ecosystems. Simulated phenology and satellite imagery were used to estimate incident (IPAR) and absorbed (APAR) PAR during the crop season for 3096 soybean fields sown across the US North Central region during 2014–2016. Quantile regression was used to derive upper limits for ea and ec and multiple-regression analysis was performed to identify biophysical drivers of the observed variation in these two efficiencies. Differences in weather, soil, and management resulted in a wide range in crop cycle length (58–126 d), total IPAR (580–1250 MJ m−2), and seed yield (0.8–6.3 Mg ha−1). The relationship between yield and total APAR was curvilinear, indicating marginal yield gains in the upper APAR range. Attainable ea represented 65% of total IPAR, while attainable ec ranged from 0.6 to 1.2 g seed MJ−1 depending upon total APAR. Average producer ea and ec were 14 and 29% below their attainable efficiencies. Average efficiency in converting IPAR into yield was 0.8%, with an upper limit of 1.1% derived from the 95th percentile of the field data distribution. Although weak, relationships between efficiencies and meteorological factors such as IPAR, temperature, water balance, and diffuse radiation were consistent with previous literature. There was a strong trade-off between ec and ea indicating that maximizing both efficiencies simultaneously was not possible in producer fields. Our approach can be used to determine attainable and actual efficiencies in capturing and converting radiation into yield, set realistic yield limits, and understand relationships between producer yield and management practices.
KW - Energy conversion
KW - Radiation capture
KW - Radiation-use efficiency
KW - Remote sensing
KW - Seed yield
KW - Soybean
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U2 - 10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.107775
DO - 10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.107775
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85072961649
SN - 0168-1923
VL - 280
JO - Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
JF - Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
M1 - 107775
ER -