VIRTUAL PLANT MODELS FOR STUDYING INTERACTIONS BETWEEN CROPS AND ENVIRONMENT
Résumé
Virtual plant models appear as powerful and appealing tools for plant scientists and agronomists, but actual examples demonstrating this usefulness are still rare. This paper presents and evaluates two applications. We developed a model of virtual maize, interacting with physical models for describing the plant environment. This allows simulating the evolution of a population in which growth and development depend on temperature and light availability at the individual plant level. In the first example, the model was used for simulating the evolution of a population, depending on initial conditions (e.g. sowing density) and the weather. The model was able to simulate the emergence of plant to plant variability, as a response to competition for resources. In the second example, model parameters were forced to follow field measurements. Model simulations then were used to investigate the relationships existing at the individual leaf level between light availability and leaf size. We demonstrated simple and robust relationships that point to original directions for the investigation of the physiological processes governing the regulations of leaf size. Finally it is concluded that virtual plant models based on ecophysiological responses, do represent useful tools to improve our understanding of plant functioning and plant-environment interactions. Obviously a lot remains to do to improve the biological realism of virtual plants models. This is a scientific challenge in plant sciences, and virtual plants make it possible to express and test hypotheses. We believe that this approach will help to improve our understanding of how local process results in properties observed at larger scale, and may show that the apparent complexity at theses scale can be explained by relatively simple description of local processes and help to identify these processes.
Domaines
Modélisation et simulation
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
Loading...