Transpiration and photosynthesis are two closely related and intercoupled processes that dominate the physiological activities and yield of crops. Therefore, there is a need to study water-carbon coupling modeling at various scales to increase water use efficiency (WUE). Using a summer maize field in North China as an example, the variations in leaf and canopy photosynthesis and transpiration (or evapotranspiration) were analyzed. The synthetic model of photosynthesis-transpiration based on stomatal behavior (SMPT-SB) was then calibrated and validated at the two scales. The leaf photosynthesis and transpiration, as well as the canopy photosynthesis and evapotranspiration, have a consistent diurnal trend. However, the canopy evapotranspiration is affected more by topsoil moisture content. The regression coefficient between leaf photosynthesis, transpiration, and WUE estimated by the SMPT-SB and the measured values was found to approach 1, with a coefficient of determination of more than 0.74. The relative error between the two sets of values is less than 11%. Therefore, the SMPT-SB could express fairly well leaf photosynthesis, transpiration, and WUE. The estimated canopy-scale photosynthesis by the SMPT-SB is also in good agreement with the measured values. However, this model underestimates the canopy evapotranspiration when the topsoil has high moisture content and therefore overestimates, to a certain extent, the canopy WUE. Farmland water cycle and carbon cycle are closely related and intercoupled ecological processes that affect the physiological activities and yield of plants [1,2]. Hence, the coupling of water and carbon cycles should be studied to improve water use efficiency (WUE). And the study of water-carbon coupling at the leaf and canopy scales could provide an insight into the physio-ecological mechanism of stomatal control during water and carbon cycle processes, reveal the scale effect and intrinsic link of water-carbon coupling and serve as a basis in establishing a coordinated and unified water-carbon coupling model and WUE estimation method.At present, evapotranspiration estimation models, including the Penman-Monteith (P-M) model [3,4], Shuttleworth-Wallace model [5], and other multilayer models [6,7], are mainly based on both energy and water equilibrium principles. Numerous plant photosynthesis models were also reported, such as the leaf biochemical model suggested by Farquar and Von Caemmerer in 1982, which expresses the photosynthetic rate as a function of intercellular carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) concentration, light quantum flux density, and temperature [8]. And the model is extensively used because of its few parameters [9][10][11]. Canopy-scale photosynthesis models are generally developed by expanding leaf photosynthesis models at the canopy scale, and they can be categorized into single-layer model [12,13], two-layer mod-