Grass Productivity Quantified Through Radiation Use Efficiency: A Review

ABSTRACT Grasses are a major portion of plant communities, both in natural conditions and in agricultural settings. Realistic and useful means of expressing their productivity are of great value. While leaf carbon exchange, growth curves, and biomass productivity are useful, in this paper we describe a different and useful approach: radiation use efficiency (RUE) or the amount of biomass produced per unit solar radiation intercepted by the leaf canopy.