Towards a quantitative description of the impact of local light environment on morphological plasticity in cereal crops using functional structural plant models
Final Report Abstract
In this project, the 3D plant model ADEL wheat was parameterized based on data obtained in two field experiments on winter wheat in 2007/8 and 2008/9, which entailed an early and late sowing date, as well as three plant population densities (low, medium and high). Measured data was used to obtain a dynamic 3D reconstruction of plant architecture to compute light interception of single leaves following the main project hypothesis: the amount of light intercepted by growing leaves affects orientation, width and specific mass of leaves. The expected plasticity of leaves in response to high plant population density (low light=longer and smaller leaves) was only measured for the early sowing treatment. In the adult growth phase (after internode elongation) plants at high density had shorter leaves compared to low density. However, the effects were smaller than expected, because in the juvenile growth phase in autumn and winter, light intensity and temperature was too low to evoke significant shade avoidance responses. Consequently we could not find a good correlation between light interception and leaf orientation, length / width. The data base on leaf shape obtained in the project (>5.000 leaves) was published along with data from barley and maize. We analyzed the plasticity of leaf shape according to growth conditions and ontogeny. A new empirical leaf shape model was fitted to measured shape data of single leaves. Obtained values of model parameters were used to analyze the patterns in leaf shape. Differences in leaf shape between juvenile and adult leaves in wheat and barley were observed. Varying growth conditions did not impact leaf shape of the respective species. Presented results can be integrated into architectural models of plant development to delineate leaf shape for different species, cultivars and environmental conditions. To demonstrate the applicability of 3D plant models, we performed a simulation study using artificial wheat ideotypes (Avatars) using the ADEL wheat model. Three avatars were computed and compared to the reference cultivar 'Soissons'. Avatars were evaluated considering three criteria: (1) the potential biomass production using the Nested Radiosity model, (2) the ability to compete with weeds using an indicator based on ground cover ratio and (3) the disease escape using a coupled virtual plant-epidemic model “Septo3D”. This virtual experiment aims to demonstrate how models in general and 3D plant models in particular, can be used as stimulating and creative tool to design innovative ideotypes.
Publications
- 2009. Analysis of leaf shape of wheat, barley and maize using an empirical shape model. PMA09: The Third International Symposium on Plant Growth Modeling, Simulation, Visualization and Applications, Beijing, China
Dornbusch T., Watt J., Baccar R., Fournier, C., Andrieu B.
- 2009. Plasticity of wheat architecture in response to sowing date and density: Can we understand leaf properties as responses to local light and temperature? 52. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Pflanzenbauwissenschaften. Halle, Germany
Dornbusch T., Baccar R., Abichou M., Fournier C., Andrieu, B.
- 2010. Lamina2Shape-An image processing tool for an explicit description of lamina shape tested on winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Comput. Electron. Agr. 70, 217-224
Dornbusch T., Andrieu B.
- 2010. Plasticity of wheat architecture in response to sowing date and density: Paramererization of ADEL Wheat. Atelier proxi-détection, Avignon, France
Dornbusch T., Baccar R., Abichou M., Fournier C., Andrieu B.
- A virtual plant model for designing wheat ideotypes and evaluating their performance in biomass production, weed suppression and disease escape. 6th International workshop on Functional-Structural Plant Models, 12- 17.9.2010, Davis, CA, USA
Robert C., Fournier C., Dornbusch T., AndrieuB., Gouache D.
- Plasticity of wheat architecture in response to sowing date and plant population density described with the 3D plant model ADEL wheat, XIth ESA Congess, 29.8.-3.9.2010, Montpellier, France
Dornbusch T., Baccar R., Abichou M., Fournier C., Andrieu, B.
