Three-dimensional modelling of salt stress effects on the tomato canopy development

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Salt stress causes important morphological alterations on plants, with tremendous implications for light interception and crop productivity. It is therefore important to include morphological information in strategies aiming to overcome salinity-induced yield reduction. This is especially true for spatially heterogeneous crops such as tomato. The purpose of this project is to develop an integrated understanding of salinity-induced morphological alterations significant for the tomato productivity. Therefore we want to conceptualise an architectural model of the tomato growing under salt stress using Lsystem formalism. Plant development will be modelled as an integration of organ appearance, expansion, senescence as well as geometrical details such as 3-D organ positioning, orientation and shape. Each of these events will be modelled depending on salinity, temperature, vapour pressure deficit or light. The effects of these environmental factors on canopy development will be investigated in five experiments, four of which will be used for model parameterisation and one for model evaluation. The model will serve as a research tool in computer simulations in order to generate hypothetical statements describing the behaviour of the plant under different environmental scenarios and analyse possibilities for model simplification.