• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.190-198
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• 2006

Radiation use efficiency (RUE), the amount of biomass produced per unit intercepted photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), constitutes a main part of crop growth simulation models. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the variation of RUE of rice plants under various nitrogen nutritive conditions. from 1998 to 2000, shoot dry weight (DW), intercepted PAR of rice canopies, and nitrogen nutritive status were measured in various nitrogen fertilization regimes using japonica and Tongil-type varieties. These data were used for estimating the average RUEs before heading and the relationship between RUE and the nitrogen nutritive status. The canopy extinction coefficient (K) increased with the growth of rice until maximum tillering stage and maintained constant at about 0.4 from maximum tillering to heading stage, rapidly increasing again after heading stage. The DW growth revealed significant linear correlation with the cumulative PAR interception of the canopy, enabling the estimation of the average RUE before heading with the slopes of the regression lines. Average RUE tended to increase with the increased level of nitrogen fertilization. RUE increased approaching maximum as the nitrogen nutrition index (NNI) calculated by the ratio of actual shoot N concentration to the critical N concentration for the maximum growth at any growth stage and the specific leaf nitrogen $(SLN;\;g/m^2\;leaf\;area)$ increased. This relationship between RUE (g/MJ of PAR) and N nutritive status was expressed well by the following exponential functions: $$RUE=3.13\{1-exp(-4.33NNNI+1.26)\}$$ $$RUE=3.17\{1-exp(-1.33SLN+0.04)\}$$ The above equations explained, respectively, about 80% and 75% of the average RUE variation due to varying nitrogen nutritive status of rice plants. However, these equations would have some limitations if incorporated as a component model to simulate the rice growth as they are based on relationships averaged over the entire growth period before heading.