CALORIMETRY OF PLANT-METABOLISM - A MEANS TO RAPIDLY INCREASE AGRICULTURAL BIOMASS PRODUCTION

The green revolution greatly increased total world food and fiber prod uction and productivity per land area, but total biomass production wa s not increased. Further gains in productivity must come by selection and breeding of faster growing phenotypes optimally matched to the gro wth environment. Plant respiration rates and growth rates have recentl y been related by means of a quantitative, physiological model that in cludes calorimetric measurement of dark metabolic heat rate (Phi) and CO2 production rate (R-CO2). Laboratory determinations of R-CO2, and P hi as functions of environmental variables and application of the mode l equations produces descriptions of plant growth rates as functions o f environmental variables in a few hours to days. These functions may make it feasible to rapidly select for optimum growth within a given e nvironment, and thus to continue the green revolution by rapidly incre asing agricultural biomass production.