RANDOM WIND-INDUCED LEAF ORIENTATION - EFFECT UPON MAXIMIZATION OF WHOLE-PLANT PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Total instantaneous plant photosynthetic rate (SIGMAP) is maximized when leaves near the top of a plant canopy are more vertically inclined than are leaves near the bottom of the canopy. When random orientation occurs about the leaf inclinations characteristic of maximization of total plant photosynthetic rate, SIGMAP will decrease. This study demonstrates that SIGMAP is most sensitive to random orientation of the top canopy layer and less sensitive to orientation of all of the lower layers. Although the average decrease from maximum SIGMAP is large as the maximum extent of random orientation increases, there is high variance in SIGMAP and many combinations of leaf inclination angles produce a SIGMAP which is nearly as large as the maximum SIGMAP.