Crop yield and CO2 fixation monitoring over Asia by a photosynthetic-sterility model comparing with MODIS and carbon amounts in grain yields

Abstract

The authors have developed a photosynthesis crop model for grain production under the background of climate change and Asian economic growth in developing countries. This paper presents an application of the model to grain fields of paddy rice, winter wheat, and maize in China and Southeast Asia. The carbon hydrate in grains has the same chemical formula as that of cellulose in grain vegetation. The partitioning of carbon in grain plants can validate fixation amounts of computed carbon using a satellite-based photosynthesis model. The model estimates the photosynthesis fixation of rice reasonably in Japan and China. Results were validated through examination of carbon in grains, but the model tends to underestimate results for winter wheat and maize. This study also provides daily distributions of the PSN, which is the CO 2 fixation in Asian areas combined with a land-cover distribution classified from MODIS data, NDVI from SPOT VEGETATION, and meteorological re-analysis data by European Centre for Medium-Range Forecasts (ECMWF). The mean CO 2 and carbon fixation rates in paddy areas were 25.92 (t CO 2 /ha) and 5.28 (t/ha) in Japan, respectively. The method is based on routine observation data, enabling automated monitoring of crop yields.