A two-stage light-use efficiency model for improving gross primary production estimation in agroecosystems

Abstract Accurate quantification of gross primary production (GPP) in agroecosystems not only improves our ability to understand the global carbon budget but also plays a critical role in human welfare and development. Light-use efficiency (LUE) models have been widely applied in estimating regional and global GPP due to their simple structure and clear physical basis. However, maximum LUE ( ε max ), a key photosynthetic parameter in LUE models, has generally been treated as a constant, leading to common overestimation and underestimation of low and high magnitudes of GPP, respectively. Here, we propose a parsimonious and practical two-stage LUE (TS-LUE) model to improve GPP estimates by (a) considering seasonal variations of ε max , and (b) separately re-parameterizing ε max in the green-up and senescence stages. The TS-LUE model is inter-compared with state-of-the-art ε max –static moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer-GPP, eddy-covariance-LUE, and vegetation production models. Validation results at 14 FLUXNET sites for five crop species showed that: (a) the TS-LUE model significantly reduced the large bias at high- and low-level GPP as produced by the three ε max –static LUE models for all crop types; and (b) the TS-LUE model generated daily GPP estimates in good agreement with in-situ measurements and was found to outperform the three ε max –static LUE models. Especially compared to the well-known moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer-GPP, the TS-LUE model could remarkably decrease the root mean square error (in gC m−2 d−1) by 24.2% and 35.4% (from 3.84 to 2.91 and 2.48) and could increase the coefficient of determination by 14.7% and 20% (from 0.75 to 0.86 and 0.9) when the leaf area index (LAI) and infrared reflectance of vegetation (NIRv) were used to re-parameterize the ε max , respectively. The TS-LUE model provides a brand-new perspective on the re-parameterization of ε max and indicates great potential for improving daily agroecosystem GPP estimates at a global scale.