botanyoneLouarn and Faverjon develop a generic model to account for the growth and development of herbaceous legume species with contrasting above- and below-ground architectures. The individual-based model (IBM) integrates plant responses to light, water and nitrogen and solves competition for multiple resources in a spatially explicit environment.
The IBM’s behaviour was assessed on a range of monospecific stands grown along three resource gradients. In addition to predicting the main density-dependent responses known about even-age plant populations, the IBM correctly anticipated plastic changes in the partitioning of dry matter, the N nutrition of legumes and the architecture of shoots and roots.
This paper is part of the Annals of Botany Special Issue on Functional-Structural Plant Growth Modelling. It will be free access until June 2018, then available only to subscribers until April 2019 when it will be free access again.
William Salter
AJ Cann