Call for papers: Functional-Structural Plant Models

Functional-structural plant models (FSPM) integrate structural and architectural characteristics, environmental triggers, and physiological responses of plants, making FSPMs powerful tools to understand the triple interactions between structure, environment, and physiology.

The FSPM virtual special issue (VSI) of in silico Plants will focus on recent advances in FSPMs dealing with plant ecophysiology, phenotyping, biophysics, morphogenesis and data sciences, and providing biological insights of plants, from cellular to canopy level. The guest editors are Tsu-Wei Chen (Humboldt-University of Berlin), Jochem Evers (Wageningen University), Andrea Schnepf (Research Center Jülich), Kathy Steppe (Ghent University) and Katrin Kahlen (Geisenheim University).

“While this virtual special issue stems from the 9^th International Conference on Functional-Structural Plant Growth Modeling [FSPM2020: Toward Computable Plants], we also have an open call for submission of additional papers related to FSPM. We are especially eager to include papers from new fields such as computer vision, machine learning, and photonics-assisted compressive sensing, which are key to answering complex questions” says Chen. The conference targeted methodological innovations for modelling of 3D-structures at various organization levels of plants, simulation of plant-microclimate interactions, and novel applications in functional-structural plant modelling, centered on questions in plant science, agriculture, horticulture, forestry and ecology.

All article types are welcome – Original Articles (which includes research & development, theory, methods, software, and computational tools), Technical Advances, Reviews, Opinions, Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and Commentaries.

Please note that all submitted papers will undergo the usual peer-review process. Those accepted for this special issue will be posted on our Advance Articles page shortly after acceptance where they will be indexed citable, then assigned to an issue as they are typeset. The published papers will also added to the FSPM virtual special issue page. If you have a manuscript that you would like to be considered for inclusion in the Virtual Special Issue on Functional-Structural Plant Growth Modelling, please send an outline (title, authors and 250–500 words) of your article to office@insilicoplants.org. All submissions must be received before 31 March, 2021 in order to be considered for inclusion in the virtual special issue.