Author
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McMaster, Gregory |
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Submitted to: Acta Horticulture Proceedings
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 3/25/2001 Publication Date: 11/1/2002 Citation: Mcmaster, G.S. 2002. Modeling field crop and rangeland canopy development, structure, and dynamics. Acta Horticulture Proceedings. Volume 593, pg. 165-170. Interpretive Summary: Modeling field crop and rangeland canopy development, structure, and dynami is increasingly receiving greater attention for many reasons including improving our predictions of production and yield, increasing the efficacy management practices, and calculating the response to extreme environmental events such as hail and frost. In the last 40 years our understanding of fundamental principles governing plant canopy development has exploded. Understanding the canopy is composed of repeating units (phytomers) produce by the collection of shoot growing points within and among plants, recogniz each phytomer is in a different microenvironment that likely receives and sends signals differentially, creating ways of uniquely naming all the part of the canopy, better quantifying of developmental sequence that each shoot growing point goes through, and correlating developmental events with growt stages provides great promise for significantly improving our modeling of canopy structure and dynamics. Unfortunately, many of these concepts have been slow to be incorporated into our existing field crop and rangeland models. Most existing mechanistic models are energy- or carbon-driven rathe than developmentally driven. To improve our plant growth models in the future, I propose that first the developmental sequence of the shoot apex o major crops and rangeland plants be summarized as has been done for wheat a maize, and then an object-oriented simulation model framework be developed that captures these developmental events. This then provides the foundatio for scientists to improve the quantification and integration of physiologic and developmental processes. As new understanding comes from functional genomics and other areas of study we can then improve our model(s) of canop structure and dynamics and apply them to various problems in cropping and Technical Abstract: Modeling field crop and rangeland canopy development, structure, and dynami is increasingly receiving greater attention for a variety of reasons includ improving our predictions of production and yield, increasing the efficacy management practices, and calculating the response to extreme environmental events such as hail and frost. Formally beginning with the German morphological school lead by Goethe, our understanding of fundamental principles governing plant canopy development has exploded. Understanding canopy is composed of phytomers produced by the population of shoot apices, recognizing each phytomer is in a different microenvironment that likely receives and sends signals differentially, creating morphological naming schemes for each phytomer/tissue, better quantifying of developmental processes of the shoot apex, and correlating developmental events with grow stages provides the promise of significant improvement in modeling canopy structure and dynamics. Unfortunately, many of these concepts have been s to be incorporated into our field crop and rangeland models. Most existing mechanistic models are energy- or carbon-driven rather than developmentally driven. To improve our plant growth models in the future, I propose that first the developmental sequence of the shoot apex of major crops and rangeland plants be summarized as has been done for wheat and maize, and th an object-oriented simulation model framework be developed that captures th developmental events. This then provides the foundation for scientists to improve the quantification and integration of physiological and development processes. As new understanding comes from functional genomics and other areas of study we can then improve our model(s) of canopy structure and dynamics. |
