Parameter Estimation of the Farquhar—von Caemmerer—Berry Biochemical Model from Photosynthetic Carbon Dioxide Response Curves

Qingguo Wang, Jong Ahn Chun, David Fleisher, Vangimalla Reddy, Dennis Timlin and Jonathan Resop
Additional contact information
Qingguo Wang: Wye Research and Education Center, University of Maryland, Queenstown, MD 21658, USA
Jong Ahn Chun: APEC Climate Center, 12 Centum 7-ro, Haeundae-gu, Busan 48058, Korea
David Fleisher: USDA-ARS Crop Systems and Global Change Lab, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA
Vangimalla Reddy: USDA-ARS Crop Systems and Global Change Lab, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA
Dennis Timlin: USDA-ARS Crop Systems and Global Change Lab, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA
Jonathan Resop: Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 7, 1-20

Abstract: The Farquhar—von Caemmerer—Berry (FvCB) biochemical model of photosynthesis, commonly used to estimate CO 2 assimilation at various spatial scales from leaf to global, has been used to assess the impacts of climate change on crop and ecosystem productivities. However, it is widely known that the parameters in the FvCB model are difficult to accurately estimate. The objective of this study was to assess the methods of Sharkey et al. and Gu et al., which are often used to estimate the parameters of the FvCB model. We generated A n / C i datasets with different data accuracies, numbers of data points, and data point distributions. The results showed that neither method accurately estimated the parameters; however, Gu et al.’s approach provided slightly better estimates. Using Gu et al.’s approach and datasets with measurement errors and the same accuracy as a typical open gas exchange system (i.e., Li-6400 ), the majority of the estimated parameters— V cmax (maximal Rubisco carboxylation rate), K co (effective Michaelis-Menten coefficient for CO 2 ), g m (internal (mesophyll) conductance to CO 2 transport) and Γ * (chloroplastic CO 2 photocompensation point)—were underestimated, while the majority of R d (day respiration) and α (the non-returned fraction of the glycolate carbon recycled in the photorespiratory cycle) were overestimated. The distributions of T p (the r ate of triose phosphate export from the chloroplast) were evenly dispersed around the 1:1 line using both approaches. This study revealed that a high accuracy of leaf gas exchange measurements and sufficient data points are required to correctly estimate the parameters for the biochemical model. The accurate estimation of these parameters can contribute to the enhancement of food security under climate change through accurate predictions of crop and ecosystem productivities. A further study is recommended to address the question of how the measurement accuracies can be improved.

Keywords: food security; CO 2 assimilation; photosynthesis; biochemical model; climate change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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