Steady‐state models of photosynthesis

Abstract

In the challenge to increase photosynthetic rate per leaf area mathematical models of photosynthesis can be used to help interpret gas exchange measurements made under different environmental conditions and predict underlying photosynthetic biochemistry. To do this successfully it is important to improve the modelling of temperature dependencies of CO2 assimilation and gain better understanding of internal CO2 diffusion limitations. Despite these shortcomings steadystate models of photosynthesis provide simple easy to use tools for thought experiments to explore photosynthetic pathway changes such as redirecting photorespiratory CO2, inserting bicarbonate pumps into C3 chloroplasts or inserting C4 photosynthesis into rice. Here a number of models derived from the C3 model by Farquhar, von Caemmerer and Berry are discussed and compared.

Temperature response of C4 photosynthesis: Biochemical analysis of Rubisco, Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxylase and Carbonic Anhydrase in Setaria viridis.

“…Biochemical models of photosynthesis are often used to predict the effect of environmental conditions on net rates of leaf CO 2 assimilation (Farquhar et al, 1980;von Caemmerer, 2000von Caemmerer, , 2013Walker et al, 2013). With climate change, there is increased interest in modeling and understanding the effects of changes in temperature and CO 2 concentration on photosynthesis.…”

Evaluating the Performance of the SCOPE Model in Simulating Canopy Solar-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence

“…For representation of photosynthesis (i.e., PQ), either the models proposed by Farquhar et al (for C3 species) [43] and Von Caemmerer (for C4 species) [44] or the model presented by Collatz et al [45,46] are/is adopted. In these photosynthesis models, V cmax is an important biochemical variable for carbon assimilation, which describes the maximum carboxylation rate of RuBisCO.…”

Dynamic photosynthesis under a fluctuating environment: a modelling-based analysis

“…A year later, Farquhar et al (1980) applied the law of limiting factors to couple a simplification of this Rubisco model to an empirical expression that calculated the potential rate of RuBP regeneration as limited by the production of NADPH or ATP. This model (hereafter "FvCB model") is one of the most important models in the history of photosynthesis research, and it gave rise to an entire family of models of CO2 assimilation with a broad range of applications (von Caemmerer, 2013).…”

“…Notable extensions of the FvCB model include the coupling to resistance-based models of CO2 diffusion (Farquhar and Sharkey, 1982;Berghuijs et al, 2015), the inclusion of a third limiting factor associated with availability of free phosphate in the chloroplast (Sharkey, 1985), the generalization of the stoichiometries assumed in the coupling of the electron transport chain to the Calvin cycle (Yin et al, 2006), or the extension of the model to C4 metabolism (von Caemmerer, 2000;Yin and Struik, 2012).…”

“…These models have proven to be successful and have been used for a wide range of applications (von Caemmerer, 2013). However, inside a canopy, most leaves are exposed to fluctuating irradiance due to transient exposure to the sun caused by gaps in the canopy and leaf movement by wind and transient shading by clouds (Pearcy, 1990).…”