Preliminary Studies On Development Of Three-dimensional Modeling Of Morphological Characters In Rice

Plant modeling has been rapidly developing in recent years. These models could be used to analyze the relationship between plant structure and function, and provide us a better understanding of plant development. In this study, a3D plant growth model of rice was established by using GroIMP, which was based on plant morphology and in combination with several essential physiological processes.According to the field experiment observations, systematic analysis of the rice plant growth and morphology was obtained. The results showed that the relationship between length and width of leaf blade on the main stem could be expressed with a logistic function. We have measured the minimum and maximum angles between leaf blade and sheath, also considering blade length, a simulated curve of leaf midrib could be possible. The relationship between leaf area and leaf length could be expressed in quadratic equation. Stem and sheath are important organs for maintaining physiological processes. We described the changes of leaf sheath and internode length on main stem with quadratic and exponential equation, respectively. Concerning to biomass, the relationship between leaf area and biomass was simulated with a power equation. We analyzed the change of specific leaf area on the main stem, thereby indicated that a quadratic equation could be used. Furthermore, an S-shaped function was used to simulate the progress of biomass accumulation in the whole plant growth process.In this study, based on the above rules of rice morphogenesis, we presented a functional-structural plant model here, including rice photosynthesis model and source-sink model. The photosynthesis model simulated the photosynthesis process of rice leaves; and in the source-sink model, P function was used to predict instant sink strength of all organs. A central assimilate pool got the carbon from photosynthesis on leaves, and then allocated the carbon to sinks according to the sink strength in any growth stage. This model was devised using GroIMP, an interactive modeling platform, which was based on Relative Growth Grammar formalism (RGG) and the extended L-systems (XL) modeling language, and was also a superset of Java programming language. In the model, plant structure and physiological function were closely connected and interacted, and the model could show intuitive growth process of rice.The functional-structural plant modeling we used here was a novel plant modeling approach, also a promising tool to explore plant management strategies. Our model has already integrated both structural and physiological processes, and had the capability to be linked with other sub-models. It is very helpful to understand the performance of crop in various environments. Therefore, it will gradually be used to combine with the actual practice in the future.