%0 Journal Article %T Water-carbon coupling modeling of summer maize at the leaf and canopy scales %A BaoZhong Zhang %A Yu Liu %A Di Xu %A JiaBing Cai %A Zheng Wei %J Chinese Science Bulletin %@ 1861-9541 %D 2013 %I %R 10.1007/s11434-012-5630-0 %X Transpiration and photosynthesis are two closely related and intercoupled processes that dominate the physiological activities and yield of crops. Therefore, there is a need to study water-carbon coupling modeling at various scales to increase water use efficiency (WUE). Using a summer maize field in North China as an example, the variations in leaf and canopy photosynthesis and transpiration (or evapotranspiration) were analyzed. The synthetic model of photosynthesis-transpiration based on stomatal behavior (SMPT-SB) was then calibrated and validated at the two scales. The leaf photosynthesis and transpiration, as well as the canopy photosynthesis and evapotranspiration, have a consistent diurnal trend. However, the canopy evapotranspiration is affected more by topsoil moisture content. The regression coefficient between leaf photosynthesis, transpiration, and WUE estimated by the SMPT-SB and the measured values was found to approach 1, with a coefficient of determination of more than 0.74. The relative error between the two sets of values is less than 11%. Therefore, the SMPT-SB could express fairly well leaf photosynthesis, transpiration, and WUE. The estimated canopy-scale photosynthesis by the SMPT-SB is also in good agreement with the measured values. However, this model underestimates the canopy evapotranspiration when the topsoil has high moisture content and therefore overestimates, to a certain extent, the canopy WUE. %K photosynthesis %K transpiration %K water use efficiency %K SMPT-SB %K stomatal conductance %K maize %U http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11434-012-5630-0