CHLOROPHYLL-DEFICIENT CROPS: PHOTOSYNTHESIS, YIELDS AND SHORTWAVE RADIATIVE FORCING

Strategies aimed at the mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are likely to cause substantial increase in shortwave radiative forcing (RFsw) in the most populated areas of the planet. Light-scattering aerosols and their precursors are in fact often co-emitted with GHGs. There are evidences that substantial solar "brightening" is ongoing is some areas of Europe. Modifications of crop surface albedo are a realistic option to reduce RFsw as in this case a fraction of incoming shortwave radiation is reflected back to space, is not absorbed by the surface and hence, is not re-emitted as heat (longwave radiation). Here we report the results of a series of experiments made in different locations in Europe where a severe Chl-deficient soybean mutant isolated at the University of Minnesota (USA) was compared with different commercial soybean varieties in terms of photosynthesis (leaf and canopy scales), water use, biomass production, yield and RFsw.