Abstract
Crop canopies are composed of individual plants. Yet, in the analysis of crop characteristics such as canopy photosynthesis, growth and performance, plants are normally not considered as individual entities with their own developmental pattern and plastic responses to their environment. Therefore, in research questions that implicitly or explicitly contain aspects of individual plant development, modelling tools that scale up processes at the level of the plant to the level of the canopy can be used. In this chapter, the functional-structural plant (FSP) modelling approach will be introduced. FSP modelling provides the possibilities to simulate individual plants in a stand setting, and their architecture in 3D over time. It can take into account light interception and scattering at the level of the leaf as a function of leaf size, angle and optical properties, and use this information to determine photosynthesis, photomorphogenesis, and overall plant growth and development. Therefore, FSP modelling can be used to translate individual plant behaviour to whole canopy performance while taking into account phenotypic variation between individuals and plastic responses to local conditions, as well as the consequences of active manipulation of plant architecture such as pruning or herbivory.
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