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Simultaneous improvement in productivity, water use, and albedo through crop structural modification
Darren T Drewry1, Praveen Kumar, Stephen P Long
1Climate Physics Group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, m/s 233-300, Pasadena, CA, 91109-8099, USA; Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science & Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, 607 Charles E Young Drive East, Young Hall, Room 4242, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-7228, USA.
Global Change Biology
|April 5, 2014
Summary
Breeding crop canopy traits can enhance agricultural productivity and water use efficiency. Modifying leaf area and reflectivity offers solutions for climate change and food security without increased resource demand.
Area of Science:
- Agricultural Science
- Climate Science
- Plant Biology
Background:
- Agricultural lands cover 15% of Earth's ice-free surface, presenting opportunities for climate change mitigation and food/water security.
- Modern crop cultivars are not optimized for maximum productivity or biogeophysical services in monoculture systems.
- Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperatures may alter optimal plant canopy structures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate computationally informed breeding of crop canopy structural traits.
- To demonstrate solutions for increasing agricultural productivity, water use efficiency, and land-surface reflectivity.
- To assess potential gains using soybean as a model crop.
Main Methods:
- Applied optimization routines to a micrometeorological leaf canopy model.
- Linked the canopy model to a steady-state model of photosynthesis.
- Analyzed modifications to total canopy leaf area, vertical profile, angular distribution, and reflectivity.
Main Results:
- Significant gains in crop production, water use, and reflectivity are achievable without additional resource demands.
- Modifying canopy traits in soybean can increase productivity by 7% with no change in water use or albedo.
- Alternatively, water use efficiency can improve by 13% or albedo by 34% with no loss in productivity.
Conclusions:
- Crop canopy structural traits can be modified through breeding to enhance productivity, water use efficiency, and reflectivity.
- These modifications offer a near-term strategy to address climate change, food, and water security challenges.
- The identified traits are available within major crop germplasm collections, facilitating practical application.
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