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| Modelling in SFB 607 - Plant development under stress |
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Group leader Prof. Dr. Hans Pretzsch, presentation by Dr. Ruediger Grote
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The modelling groups occupy a central position within the SFB 607. They have to work with data obtained from seedlings fostered in the laboratory, greenhouse grown plants as well as plants grown in agricultural environment or forests. Accordingly, a wide range of species has to be considered ranging from grass, crop, and herbaceous species to coniferous and deciduous trees. These plants are subjected to many environmental manipulations, including pathogen application, fertilisation and air pollution. However, every investigation is targeting plant development under stress and the trade-off that is expected between investment into growth and defence, respectively.
Despite the fact that these difference provoke different defence strategies, we believe that the relation between costs and benefits that a plant experiences can be described in a holistic manner by describing the investment into defences as a function of potential growth rate, resource supply and stress intensity. For long-living species, however, these responses may be hard to detect because adaptation may occur through morphological development and population dynamics rather that a change in biochemical composition. Since different species, particularly coniferous and deciduous trees, can be expected to have different response potentials, long-term perspectives have to be given taken into account.
Within the SFB 607 two modelling groups have been set up, concentrating on a general representation of costs and benefits due to defense, and on the implementation of defense strategies into the modelling of tree growth and stand development, respectively. The first group adapted an approach by Conely 1985 and introduced a dependency of defense investment on nutrition. From this, optimum defense investment can be related to growth rate and nitrogen availability. The second group represents defense costs as increased metabolic activity, which then affects all physiological processes, including biomass allocation and 3D-space occupation and thus competition and stand development. From this model, first validation runs for selected processes are presented and an outlook for future benefits is given.
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