Geographical variations in gross primary production and evapotranspiration of paddy rice in the Korean Peninsula

Abstract

The quantification of canopy photosynthesis and evapotranspiration of crops (ET_c) is essential to appreciate the effects of environmental changes on CO₂ flux and water availability in agricultural ecosystems and crop productivity. This study simulated the canopy photosynthesis and ET processes of paddy rice (Oryza sativa) based on the development of physiological modules (i.e., gross primary production [GPP] and ET_c) and their incorporation into the GRAMI-rice model that uses remote sensing data. We also projected spatiotemporal variations in the GPP, ET, yield, and biomass of paddy rice at maturity using the updated GRAMI-rice model combined with geostationary satellite images to identify the relationships of canopy photosynthesis and ET_c with crop productivity. GPP and ET data for paddy rice were obtained from three KoFlux sites in South Korea in 2015 and 2016. Vegetation indices were acquired from the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) of the Communication Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS) from 2012 to 2017 and integrated into GRAMI-rice. GPP and ET_c estimates using GRAMI-rice were in close agreement with flux tower estimates with Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency ranges of 0.40-0.79 for GPP and 0.49-0.62 for ET_c. Also, GRAMI-rice was reasonably well incorporated with the COMS GOCI imagery and reproduced spatiotemporal variations in the GPP and ET of rice in the Korean peninsula. The current study results demonstrate that the updated GRAMI-rice model with the canopy photosynthesis and ET_c modules is capable of reproducing spatiotemporal variations in CO₂ assimilation and ET of paddy rice at various geographical scales and for regions of interest that are observable by satellite sensors (e.g., inaccessible North Korea).

Keywords: CO(2) flux; Evapotranspiration; Model; Photosynthesis; Rice.