Use of 3D modeling to refine predictions of canopy light utilization: A comparative study on canopy photosynthesis models with different dimensions

Abstract

Canopy photosynthesis integrates leaf functional and structural traits in space and time and correlates positively with yield formation. Many models with different levels of architectural details ranging from zero-dimensional (0D) to three-dimensional (3D) have been developed to simulate canopy light interception and photosynthesis. Based on these models, a crop growth model can be used to assess crop yield in response to genetic improvement, optimized practices, and environmental change. However, to what extent do architectural details influence light interception, photosynthetic production, and grain yield remains unknown. Here, we show that a crop growth model with high-resolution upscaling approach in space reduces the departure of predicted yield from actual yield and refines the simulation of canopy photosynthetic production. We found crop yield predictions decreased by 12.0–48.5% with increasing the resolution of light simulation, suggesting that a crop growth model without architectural details may result in a considerable departure from the actual photosynthetic production. A dramatic difference in light interception and photosynthetic production of canopy between cultivars was captured by the proposed 3D model rather than the 0D, 1D, and 2D models. Furthermore, we found that the overestimation of crop yield by the 0D model is caused by the overestimation of canopy photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) interception and the RUE and that by the 1D and 2D model is caused by the overestimated canopy photosynthesis rate that is possibly related to higher predicted PAR and fraction of sunlit leaves. Overall, this study confirms the necessity of taking detailed architecture traits into consideration when evaluating the strategies of genetic improvement and canopy configuration in improving crop yield by crop modeling.