Integrated Remote Sensing and Crop Model Approach for Impact Assessment of Aerosols on Biomass Accumulation of Maize

The remote sensing data and crop model were used to explore the dynamic changes and accumulation of maize biomass in China caused by aerosols in this study. Maize varieties were divided into spring maize and summer maize. Two spring maize and three summer maize stations were selected. The results indicated that the solar radiation through all stages of maize development was reduced by aerosols, with daily average reductions of 3.23 MJ·m
^-2
·d
^-1
for spring maize and 8.96 MJ·m
^-2
·d
^-1
for summer maize from 2001 to 2014. Aerosols reduced the daily actual maize biomass in the study area, with an average daily decrease of 3.78 g·m
^-2
·d
^-1
from 2001 to 2014. Moreover, the changes in daily actual biomass caused by aerosols varied in different growth stages. The reduction in daily actual biomass caused by aerosols in the stage of emergence-flowering was larger than that in the stage of flowering-maturity. For spring maize, the changes in daily actual biomass caused by aerosols were -2.12 to -2.29 g·m
^-2
·d
^-1
from emergence to flowering and -0.72 to 0.08 g·m
^-2
·d
^-1
from flowering to maturity. For summer maize, the changes in daily actual biomass caused by aerosols were -8.94 to -3.45 g·m
^-2
·d
^-1
from emergence to flowering and -6.50 to -2.24 g·m
^-2
·d
^-1
from flowering to maturity. In addition, the annual maize biomass from 2001 to 2014 at five stations clearly decreased owing to aerosols. Moreover, the decrease in the annual biomass of summer maize was greater than that of spring maize, with an average decrease of 27.77% in summer maize biomass and 10.94% in spring maize biomass.