A dynamic model of RuBP-regeneration limited photosynthesis accounting for photoinhibition, heat and water stress

Plant physiological responses to stress and subsequent damage have not been successfully integrated into leaf, plant or land surface models. Water deficit leads to a series of plant responses: stomatal closure decreases evaporative cooling leading to higher leaf temperature, which it can affect photosynthetic dissipation of absorbed energy, especially under high irradiance. Excess absorbed energy by PSII results in photoinhibition, which is not typically included when modeling photosynthesis using the Farquhar-von Caemmerer-Berry (FvCB) model. We introduce a novel approach to represent plant-atmosphere interactions: a non-steady state model of photoinhibition linked to the RuBP-regeneration component of the FvCB model that accounts for the interactions between high temperature, irradiance, and water deficits. Gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence dynamics showed that, under severe water stress, the maximum quantum efficiency of PSII (F-v/F-m) quickly decreases, and it takes days to recover. We found a clear relationship between maximum electron transport rate and F-v/F-m and that short-term acclimation to irradiance affected photosynthetic FvCB model parameters. F-v/F-m functioned well as a coupling variable, able to scale RuBP-regeneration limited photosynthesis parameters proportional to photoinhibition. These results indicate that plant stress, photo-inhibitory damage, and recovery can be explicitly represented when modeling photosynthesis.