Effects of photosynthetic models on the calculation results of photosynthetic response parameters in young Larix principis-rupprechtii Mayr. plantation

Accurately predicting the crown photosynthesis of trees is necessary for better understanding the C circle in terrestrial ecosystem. However, modeling crown for individual tree is still challenging with the complex crown structure and changeable environmental conditions. This study was conducted to explore model in modeling the photosynthesis light response curve of the tree crown of young Larix principis-rupprechtii Mayr. Plantation. The rectangular hyperbolic model (RHM), non-rectangular hyperbolic model (NRHM), exponential model (EM) and modified rectangular hyperbolic model (MRHM) were used to model the photosynthetic light response curves. The fitting accuracy of these models was tested by comparing determinants coefficients (R2), mean square errors (MSE) and Akaike information criterion (AIC). The results showed that the mean value of R2 of MRHM (R2 = 0.9687) was the highest, whereas MSE value (MSE = 0.0748) and AIC value (AIC = -39.21) were the lowest. The order of fitting accuracy of the four models for Pn-PAR response curve was as follows: MRHM > EM > NRHM > RHM. In addition, the light saturation point (LSP) obtained by MRHM was slightly lower than the observed values, whereas the maximum net photosynthetic rates (Pmax) modeled by the four models were close to the measured values. Therefore, MRHM was superior to other three models in describing the photosynthetic response curve, the accurate values were that the quantum efficiency (α), maximum net photosynthetic rate (Pmax), light saturation point (LSP), light compensation point (LCP) and respiration rate (Rd) were 0.06, 6.06 μmol·m-2s-1, 802.68 μmol·m-2s-1, 10.76 μmol·m-2s-1 and 0.60 μmol·m-2s-1. Moreover, the photosynthetic response parameters values among different layers were also significant. Our findings have critical implications for parameter calibration of photosynthetic models and thus robust prediction of photosynthetic response in forests.