The objective of this paper was to clearly demonstrate the effects of powdery mildew on photosynthetic characteristics of winter wheat and to establish a model for simulating effects of powdery mildew stress on wheat photosynthetic productivity.

To clarify the effects of powdery mildew on wheat photosynthetic characteristics, the powdery mildew experiments of wheat were conducted under two initial inoculation degrees of wheat powdery mildew at jointing and booting stages. On this basis, a prediction model of wheat powdery mildew severity was established to quantify the physiological effects of powdery mildew on wheat. And then, based on the single leaf net photosynthetic rate (P_n) and leaf area index (LAI), the wheat powdery mildew severity prediction model was coupled with the crop growth model (WheatGrow).

Under the stress of powdery mildew, P_n and LAI showed a decreasing trend. Compared with the control (CK), the averaged P_n and LAI decreased by 18.81% and 23.41%, respectively. Moreover, the effects of stages of powdery mildew on P_n and LAI were more serious than the initial inoculation degrees. In general, the development of wheat powdery mildew in the field had obvious gentle period, exponential outbreak period and stable period, and the temporal dynamic characteristics of wheat powdery mildew epidemic under each treatment accorded with Logistic function. Therefore, based on the Logistic fitting results, the wheat powdery mildew disease stress factor was established to reflect the stress effects of powdery mildew on wheat physiological indexes. In addition, based on the photosynthesis productivity sub-model of WheatGrow and the effect factor of wheat powdery mildew severity, the algorithms to simulate the effects of powdery mildew on P_n and LAI were established, and then the improved WheatGrow model was estimated by using the powdery mildew experimental datasets in independent years.

The integrated model with powdery mildew stress algorithms was better than the original WheatGrow model in predicting P_n, LAI, aboveground biomass and yield under powdery mildew stress condition, with the simulation accuracy improved by 53.29%, 43.61%, 60.09% and 67.57%, respectively. The improved model could provide the digital tool and technical support for prediction of wheat powdery mildew severity and the quantitative evaluation of wheat yield loss.