关键词: 光合作用, 产量潜力, 冠层光氮匹配, 根-冠水分平衡

Abstract: Rice yield production is limited by the carbohydrate supply during grain-filling, which is unable to fill the large number of florets of rice plants, especially in the newly bred super-rice with numerous spikelets in a panicle.During grain-filling stage, carbohydrate supply depends on carbon from two sources: current photosynthetic assimilates and pre-stored assimilates in culms and leaf sheaths of rice plants. It is necessary to conduct the ecophysiological study on the sources of carbohydrate supply, which would enhance our understanding of limitations to yield potential in modern super-rice. The author summarized recent progresses in this field, and proposed that yield potential of modern‘super’ rice could be improved by exploring ecophysiological properties of leaf photosynthesis, interaction of light and nitrogen distribution within canopy, and the relationship between root water uptake and leaf water potential. In the end, the author emphasized the role of modelling in integrating crop physiological knowledge to find the limitations to realizing super-rice yield potential and its physiological basis.

Key words: photosynthesis, yield potential, light and nitrogen distribution within canopy, relationship between root water uptake and leaf water potential