Modelling the radiative transfer in discontinuous canopies of asymmetric crowns. II. Model testing and application in a Norway spruce stand

Olive Crown Porosity Measurement Based on Radiation Transmittance: An Assessment of Pruning Effect

Crown porosity influences radiation interception, air movement through the fruit orchard, spray penetration, and harvesting operation in fruit crops. The aim of the present study was to develop an accurate and reliable methodology based on transmitted radiation measurements to assess the porosity of traditional olive trees under different pruning treatments. Transmitted radiation was employed as an indirect method to measure crown porosity in two olive orchards of the Picual and Hojiblanca cultivars. Additionally, three different pruning treatments were considered to determine if the pruning system influences crown porosity. This study evaluated the accuracy and repeatability of four algorithms in measuring crown porosity under different solar zenith angles. From a 14° to 30° solar zenith angle, the selected algorithm produced an absolute error of less than 5% and a repeatability higher than 0.9. The described method and selected algorithm proved satisfactory in field results, making it possible to measure crown porosity at different solar zenith angles. However, pruning fresh weight did not show any relationship with crown porosity due to the great differences between removed branches. A robust and accurate algorithm was selected for crown porosity measurements in traditional olive trees, making it possible to discern between different pruning treatments.

Analysis of the sensitivity of absorbed light and incident light profile to various canopy architecture and stand conditions

We analyzed the effect of simplifying assumptions in canopy representation of radiation transfer models, comparing modeled diffuse non-interceptance and photosynthetic photon flux density with measurements at different layers of complex pine-broadleaved canopy with large seasonal variation of leaf area index. The most detailed model included clumping of trees (i.e., stand density) and a vertical specification of leaf angle distribution and shoot clumping. A less detailed model replaced the vertically specified variables with their means. The most parsimonious model accounted for neither shoot clumping nor stand density. The vertical specification of shoot clumping and leaf angle distribution only slightly improved vertical and seasonal openness and light estimates over using mean values. Further simplification had little effect on total absorbed light but was more risky for estimates of the vertical distributions of openness and light absorbed by the canopy, which will affect photosynthesis estimates due to the non-linearity of photosynthetic light response. Including woody surfaces in winter, when leaf area was low, was essential for reproducing the measurements correctly. A sensitivity analysis showed that ignoring (i) shoot clumping could result in a substantial overestimation of total absorbed light with errors increasing with decreasing leaf area and (ii) stand density in sparse stands could lead to substantial overestimation of total absorbed light, and the effect is largely independent of leaf area. Also, (iii) the effect of changing leaf angle distribution increased with decreasing leaf area, and was larger and more persistent along the leaf area range with increasing shoot clumping. Overall, accounting for the effect of tree clumping on absorbed light is most important in stands composed of species where leaves are not very clumped (e.g., broadleaved). However, even in forests with highly clumped shoots (i.e., coniferous), an accurate estimation of absorbed light distribution in stands requires incorporation of stand density in the model.

The use of the ratio between the photosynthesis parameters p(ml)and v(cmax)for scaling up photosynthesis of C(3)Plants from leaves to canopies: A critical examination of different modelling approaches

Recent models of photosynthesis have adopted the close correlation between the main photosynthetic component processes, the maximum rate of carboxylation and the potential rate of RuBP (ribulose-1, 5-bisphosphate) regeneration, at a reference temperature of 20 degrees C. When using the ratio between these two processes in models of photosynthesis, assumptions though have to be made about the temperature response of the potential rate of RuBP regeneration, which varies with growth conditions and among species. In order to assess the effects of deviations from the real temperature response of the potential rate of RuBP regeneration on photosynthesis, a sensitivity analysis, scaling up photosynthesis from the leaf to the canopy level, is applied in the present paper. No changes are predicted to occur for sunlit leaves, which receive both direct and diffuse radiation, as long as incident radiation does not cause carboxylation to shift from RuBP saturation to RuBP limitation, which, depending on incident radiation and canopy structure, might occur deeper down in the canopy. Carboxylation of shaded leaves, which receive solely diffuse radiation, is generally limited by the regeneration of RuBP, and is thus prone to be affected by changes in the temperature response of the potential rate of RuBP regeneration. Due to the saturation type response of the RuBP-limited rate of carboxylation to temperature at light intensities below saturation, the impact of deviations from the real temperature response is negligible at high leaf temperatures, but may become significant when leaf temperatures are low and photosynthetically active radiation incident on shaded leaves is comparably high, as in the upper canopy layers. The largest effects on whole canopy photosynthesis will therefore occur under cool conditions and a completely overcast sky, when all leaves receive diffuse radiation only. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.