Simulations of crop yields under climate change are subject to uncertainties whose quantification is important for effective use of projected results for adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the US Pacific Northwest (PNW), studies based on single crop models and weather projections downscaled from a few general circulation models (GCM) have indicated mostly beneficial effects of climate cha...

This volume brings together many contributions and aspects of functional-structural plant modelling. These last pages draw attention to three significant questions that may emerge while reading this book: (i) to what extent do these models address plant functions? (ii) what is the (future) role of these models in plant sciences? and (iii) how can the use of these models be enhanced? These quest...

The aim of this chapter is to give an overview of the measurements needed for development and parameterization of a functional-structural crop model. Special emphasis will be given to measurements for structural/architectural processes. Size (area, length, width, thickness, volume) of the various organs (e.g., leaves, internodes, flowers, fruits and roots), as well as number of organs, 3D posit...

The interest in techniques to improve water use efficiency (WUE) such as controlled deficit irrigation is rising due to the emergence of strong competition for fresh water in order to comply with the increased demand for food worldwide. Additionally, the use of crop models in conjunction with complex decision support systems becomes more and more widespread making it essential to reliably predi...

Traditional decision support systems based on crop simulation models are normally site-specific. In policy formulation, however, spatial variability of crop production often need to be evaluated due to different soil conditions, weather conditions and agricultural practices within a target-region. To address the spatial variability, a spatial model “Spatial EPIC” was developed based on a crop s...

A computer program was developed to study multiple crop production and control in controlled environment plant production systems. The program simulates crop growth and development under nominal and off-nominal environments. Time-series crop models for wheat (Triticum aestivum), soybean (Glycine max), and white potato (Solanum tuberosum) are integrated with a model-based predictive controller. ...

Modeling inter-species competition is a natural application for dynamic simulation models of agricultural systems. We extended a dynamic simulation model of the soil-plant-atmosphere system, GAPS, to include the case where multiple plant species are growing in competition. The competition model was implemented as an object hierarchy which exchanges information with a crop model hierarchy by mea...

In this paper, mathematical models are presented to study the thermal behavior of crops (cabbage and peas) for open sun drying (natural convection) and inside the greenhouse under both natural and forced convection. The predictions of crop temperature, greenhouse room air temperature and rate of moisture evaporation (crop mass during drying) have been computed in Matlab software on the basis of...