Simultaneous improvement in productivity, water use, and albedo through crop structural modification

• DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12567
• Publication Date: 2014-04-03T12:44:15Z
• Authors: Darren T. Drewry; Praveen Kumar; Stephen P. Long
• Keywords: Crops, Agricultural; 0301 basic medicine; 2. Zero hunger; Climate Change; Water; Breeding; Models, Theoretical; 15. Life on land; Biophysical Phenomena; 6. Clean water; Plant Leaves; 03 medical and health sciences; 13. Climate action; Sunlight; Selection, Genetic

Spanning 15% of the global ice-free terrestrial surface, agricultural lands provide an immense and near-term opportunity to address climate change, food, water security challenges. Through computationally informed breeding canopy structural traits away from those modern cultivars, we show that solutions exist increase productivity use efficiency, while increasing land-surface reflectivity offset greenhouse gas warming. Plants have evolved maximize capture radiation in upper leaves, thus shading competitors. While important for survival wild, this is suboptimal monoculture crop fields maximizing other biogeophysical services. Crop progenitors over last 25 million years atmosphere with less than half [CO2] projected 2050. By altering leaf photosynthetic rates, rising temperature may also alter optimal form. Here using soybean, world's most protein crop, as example by applying optimization routines a micrometeorological model linked steady-state photosynthesis, significant gains production, use, are possible no additional demand on resources. modifying total area, its vertical profile angular distribution, shortwave reflectivity, all available major germplasm collections, increases (7%) change or albedo. Alternatively, improvements (13%) albedo (34%) can likewise be made loss productivity, under Corn Belt conditions.