Agriculture Radiation Use Efficiency

Normalize observed signed dry-biomass change by integrated intercepted PAR, not total incident solar energy or point PPFD; allocation/respiration changes and causal light response are not inferred.

Description

Radiation-use efficiency compares dry biomass change with intercepted photosynthetically active radiation.

Radiation-use efficiency compares dry biomass change with intercepted photosynthetically active radiation. Total incident sunlight or a point PPFD reading does not supply the same denominator.^[1]

Normalize observed signed dry-biomass change by integrated intercepted PAR, not total incident solar energy or point PPFD; allocation/respiration changes and causal light response are not inferred.

When to use Agriculture Radiation Use Efficiency

Use this tool to normalize observed signed dry-biomass change by integrated intercepted PAR, not total incident solar energy or point PPFD; allocation/respiration changes and causal light response are not inferred.

Prepare the field, crop, soil or material measurements for the intended period. Confirm units, dry/wet bases and supplied parameters; keep paired observations aligned.

How to use Agriculture Radiation Use Efficiency and understand its results

Prepare the field, crop, soil or material measurements for the intended period. Confirm units, dry/wet bases and supplied parameters; keep paired observations aligned.
Enter prePeriodDryBiomassGramsPerM2, postPeriodDryBiomassGramsPerM2, intervalIncidentParMjPerM2, interceptedParFractions using the field table and calculation rules, then run the tool.
Read totalInterceptedParMjPerM2, signedDryBiomassGainGramsPerM2, observedRadiationUseEfficiencyGramsPerMj. The explanation below defines the units, signs, ordering and any flags or placeholder values.
If the tool reports an input issue, correct the values and run it again. Apply the stated assumptions when interpreting a successfully returned result.

Input field	Meaning	Value type; see rules below	Requirement
prePeriodDryBiomassGramsPerM2	Pre period dry biomass grams per m2	number	Required
postPeriodDryBiomassGramsPerM2	Post period dry biomass grams per m2	number	Required
intervalIncidentParMjPerM2	Interval incident par mj per m2	list of number	Required
interceptedParFractions	Intercepted par fractions	list of number	Required

Enter nonnegative before/after dry biomass in g/m², nonnegative interval incident PAR in MJ/m² and aligned interception fractions in [0,1]. Intercepted total must be positive. Return intercepted energy, signed biomass gain and g/MJ efficiency. Biomass loss yields negative efficiency.

Paired lists must be nonempty and have equal lengths.

interceptedPAR = Σ(incidentPAR_i interception_i); RUE = (postBiomass−preBiomass)/interceptedPAR

Units, indexing, boundary conditions and exceptional cases are defined in the calculation rules above.

Output field	Meaning	Value type
totalInterceptedParMjPerM2	Total intercepted par mj per m2	number
signedDryBiomassGainGramsPerM2	Signed dry biomass gain grams per m2	number
observedRadiationUseEfficiencyGramsPerMj	Observed radiation use efficiency grams per mj	number

json

{
  "input": {
    "prePeriodDryBiomassGramsPerM2": 100,
    "postPeriodDryBiomassGramsPerM2": 300,
    "intervalIncidentParMjPerM2": [
      10,
      20
    ],
    "interceptedParFractions": [
      0.5,
      0.75
    ]
  },
  "output": {
    "totalInterceptedParMjPerM2": 20,
    "signedDryBiomassGainGramsPerM2": 200,
    "observedRadiationUseEfficiencyGramsPerMj": 10
  }
}

Limitations and assumptions

Measurements must cover the same period and biomass scope. Respiration, allocation and other causes of change are not separated, and the result does not establish a causal response to light.

Numeric inputs must be finite. Follow the calculation-specific rules for overflow, underflow and exceptional cases. Numeric lists are limited to 100,000 entries; the rules above may require smaller limits. Missing required fields, extra fields, wrong value types and violations of the calculation rules are input errors.

Alternative or Complementary methods

Use Agriculture Crop Yield Per Hectare: Pool actual marketable harvest inventories by harvested area, retaining plot yields instead of averaging unequal areas; masses must share a declared moisture/grade basis. For a complementary task, use Daily Light Integral MOL M2 Day: Integrate measured time-varying PPFD by trapezoids into observed daily photon dose; unobserved hours are not silently filled and a constant PPFD-to-DLI alias is excluded.

References

Agriculture Radiation Use Efficiency — tool.io

Similar or alternative tools

Agriculture Crop Yield Per Hectare
Pool actual marketable harvest inventories by harvested area, retaining plot yields instead of averaging unequal areas; masses must share a declared moisture/grade basis.
Daily Light Integral MOL M2 Day
Integrate measured time-varying PPFD by trapezoids into observed daily photon dose; unobserved hours are not silently filled and a constant PPFD-to-DLI alias is excluded.