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Simulating Crop Growth and Development Using Functional-Structural Plant Modeling

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Book cover Canopy Photosynthesis: From Basics to Applications

Part of the book series: Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration ((AIPH,volume 42))

Summary

Crop canopies are composed of individual plants. Yet, in the analysis of crop characteristics such as canopy photosynthesis, growth and performance, plants are normally not considered as individual entities with their own developmental pattern and plastic responses to their environment. Therefore, in research questions that implicitly or explicitly contain aspects of individual plant development, modelling tools that scale up processes at the level of the plant to the level of the canopy can be used. In this chapter, the functional-structural plant (FSP) modelling approach will be introduced. FSP modelling provides the possibilities to simulate individual plants in a stand setting, and their architecture in 3D over time. It can take into account light interception and scattering at the level of the leaf as a function of leaf size, angle and optical properties, and use this information to determine photosynthesis, photomorphogenesis, and overall plant growth and development. Therefore, FSP modelling can be used to translate individual plant behaviour to whole canopy performance while taking into account phenotypic variation between individuals and plastic responses to local conditions, as well as the consequences of active manipulation of plant architecture such as pruning or herbivory.

This chapter will treat the underlying principles of FSP modelling as well as the calibration and validation of such models. It will subsequently describe how the interaction between light and a canopy composed of individual plants with their own architecture can be simulated, and how the feedback of photosynthesis, carbon allocation and growth as well as photomorphogenetic processes on light capture can be included.

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Abbreviations

a :

Moment of blade appearance

FSP:

Functional-Structural Plant

k 1 :

Maximum slope of blade length curve

k 2 :

Maximum slope of the final blade length curve

l :

Normalized blade length

l f :

Final blade length

l f,m :

Maximum final blade length on a stem

LAI :

Leaf area index

LED:

Light emitting diode

p :

Phytomer rank

p o :

Phytomer rank at first emerging leaf

PAR :

Photosynthetically active radiation

phyl :

Phyllochron

R:FR:

Red to far-red ratio

p m :

Phytomer rank at maximum final blade length

SLA :

Specific leaf area

SVAT:

Soil -vegetation-atmosphere transfer

tt :

Blade age at the inflection point of the relationship between final blade length and phytomer rank

Z:

Slope of the phytochrome status to red far-red curve

ϕ :

The phytochrome status ζ – Red to far-red ratio

ϕ r :

Phytochrome status at saturating red light

ϕ fr :

Phytochrome status at saturating far-red light.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Crop Systems Analysis, Wageningen UR, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, Wageningen, 6708 PB, The Netherlands

    Jochem B. Evers

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  1. Jochem B. Evers
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Correspondence to Jochem B. Evers .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Kouki Hikosaka

  2. Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences Institute of Agricultural and, Tartu, Estonia

    Ülo Niinemets

  3. Crop and Weed Ecology, Centre for Crop Systems Analysis, Wageningen University, Wageningen, Gelderland, The Netherlands

    Niels P.R. Anten

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Evers, J.B. (2016). Simulating Crop Growth and Development Using Functional-Structural Plant Modeling. In: Hikosaka, K., Niinemets, Ü., Anten, N. (eds) Canopy Photosynthesis: From Basics to Applications. Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration, vol 42. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7291-4_8

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