Measuring Radiation Use Efficiency of Cotton Grown in the Arid Southwest

Radiation use efficiency (RUE) is defined as the biomass produced given the total solar radiation intercepted by the crop canopy. Plants in-general, are very inefficient at utilizing solar radiation to produce biomass. Previous studies have shown that increasing RUE can also increase crop yield. Measuring RUE is very labor intensive and requires destructive plant sampling which prevents many breeders from incorporating RUE into their programs. At the US Arid Land Agricultural Research Center in Maricopa Arizona, a row-bot and proximal sensing carts were developed to measure light interception, photochemical efficiency, and biomass, three components of RUE. The results will be presented and discussed.