Foliar Uptake Models for Biocides: Testing Practical Identifiability of Diffusion-Based Models

Abstract

With the expanding global population and diminishing resources, the imperative of ensuring sufficient food production becomes increasingly urgent. It is pivotal to develop safer biocides to enhance crop yields and address the escalating demands for food. Mathematical models are essential for understanding and characterizing the dynamic behaviour of complex biological systems. This work focuses on the development and statistical validation of a model for the description of biocide uptake through the leaves of plants. The systematic modelling strategy applied follows the steps: 1) formulation of candidate models; 2) conduction of identifiability tests to verify that model parameters can be estimated from observations; 3) selection of the best model based on its statistical performance in representing the experimental observations; 4) design of experiments for improving the precision of parameter estimates from data; 5) statistical validation of the final model. This paper presents a diffusion-based model for foliar uptake and a study on the practical identifiability of the model parameters (steps 1 and 2 of the procedure outlined). These results will guide further model-driven experimentation in the context of foliar uptake of pesticides.