A canopy photosynthesis model to predict the dry matter production of cocksfoot pastures under varying temperature, nitrogen and water regimes

Daily net canopy photosynthesis ( P n ) of cocksfoot ( Dactylis glomerata L.) was predicted for combinations of temperature, herbage nitrogen (N) concentration and water status from the integration of models of leaf photosynthesis of the light‐saturated photosynthetic rate ( P max ), photosynthetic efficiency ( α ) and the degree of curvature ( θ ) of leaf light‐response curves. The effect on P n , maximum P n ( P n max ) and the optimum leaf area index (LAI at P n max ) was examined when any one of these factors was limiting. The ranges that gave the optimum values of P n ( P n max = 30·8–33·5 g CO 2 m −2 d −1 ) for temperature (19–22°C) and N concentration (40–50 g N kg −1 DM) were smaller than those for net leaf photosynthesis. Also, P n fell to 0 at a lower level of water stress (pre‐dawn leaf water potential, ψ lp = −12·5 bar) than for P max . The canopy photosynthesis model was then used to compare predicted and measured dry matter (DM) production for cocksfoot pastures grown under a diverse range of environmental conditions with field data from New Zealand and Argentina. To predict DM production leaf area index and leaf canopy angle were included from field measurements. The model explained about 0·85 of the variation in cocksfoot DM production for the range of 6·5–134 kg DM ha −1 d −1 . The canopy model overestimated the DM production by 0·10 which indicates that a further P max function for leaves of different ages and a partitioning sub‐model may be needed to improve predictions of DM production.