Evaluation of cropland maximum light use efficiency using eddy flux measurements in North America and Europe

Croplands cover 12% of the ice-free land surface and play an important role in the global carbon cycle. Light use efficiency (LUE) models have often been employed to estimate the exchange of CO<inf>2</inf> between croplands and the atmosphere. A key parameter in these models is the maximum light use efficiency (ε^*), but estimates of ε^* vary by at least a factor 2. Here we used 12 agricultural eddy-flux measurement sites in North America and Europe to constrain LUE models in general and ε^* in particular. We found that LUE models could explain on average about 70% of the variability in net ecosystem exchange (NEE) when we increased the ε^* from 0.5 to 0.65-2.0g C per MJ Photosynthetic Active Radiation (PAR). Our results imply that croplands are more important in the global carbon budget than often thought. In addition, inverse modeling approaches that utilize LUE model outputs as a-priori input may have to be revisited in areas where croplands are an important contributor to regional carbon fluxes. Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.