Surface solar radiation (SSR) determines the energy and climate of the Earth's biosphere, critically powering photosynthesis, thus contributing to productivity of crops like maize. SSR-use efficiency nonlinearly decreases with incident SSR, particularly at increasing SSR intensities, which are inefficiently converted into crop biomass. Here we analyze trends in SSR using both satellite- and ground-based data, enabling implementation of a process-based Hybrid-Maize model for determination of the contribution of SSR trends to maize yield gains throughout the 1980s to 2020 in the US Corn Belt. We conclude that decadal maize yield gains across the US Corn Belt exhibit nonlinear responses to SSR trends, even when considering an overestimated solar brightening rate of 6.9 W m−2 per decade. We show that changes in SSR did not significantly increase maize yields, whereas non-environmental factors, such as genetics and management practices, account for steady and significant contributions to decadal yield gains.

中文翻译：

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地表太阳增亮对美国玉米种植带玉米产量增长的非线性贡献


表面太阳辐射（SSR）决定地球生物圈的能量和气候，为光合作用提供关键动力，从而有助于提高玉米等农作物的生产力。 SSR 使用效率随着 SSR 的发生而非线性降低，特别是在 SSR 强度增加时，其转化为作物生物量的效率很低。在这里，我们使用卫星和地面数据分析 SSR 趋势，从而实现基于过程的混合玉米模型，以确定 SSR 趋势对 1980 年代至 2020 年美国玉米种植带玉米产量增长的贡献。我们得出的结论是，即使考虑到高估的每十年 6.9 W m−2 的太阳增亮率，美国玉米带的十年间玉米产量增长也对 SSR 趋势表现出非线性响应。我们发现，SSR 的变化并没有显着提高玉米产量，而遗传和管理实践等非环境因素却对十年间的产量增长做出了稳定而显着的贡献。