Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 2.5
Simulation of a cut-rose production system in a greenhouse, with direct and diffuse
daylight as well as light from high-pressure sodium lamps, reconstructing the light microclimate
between 6:00 ( up left) and 17:00 ( down right) in winter. The model was created using GroIMP.
(Source: Hemmerling et al.
2008
)
to approach horticulture with a systems' view, in order to meet the global challenges
that lie ahead. At the same time, the diversity of horticulture is a potential obstacle
for a modelling approach as a model developed for one husbandry system (cultivar
plus production methods) might only partially or not at all be transferable to another.
Horticultural production systems exhibit a high degree of diversity. Their com-
plexity can be unravelled and their use improved using a method of choice—func-
tional-structural plant modelling. Most examples for implemented FSPM explicitly
only cover intermediate scale levels (e.g. that of the organ, the plant, and the cano-
py), whereas much lower (cellular and molecular) and much higher (field, region)
ones are often not considered. As for the higher scales, their consideration would
not make sense in a horticultural context, because of the high diversity of cultures.
With respect to the lower scales, they have not yet been considered in horticultural
FSPMs, for various reasons. Firstly, the knowledge base concerning the molecular
and genetic control of physiological processes is still small and sketchy. Secondly,
the reconstruction of the topology of regulatory networks from 'omics' data using
bioinformatics tools is underway, and, therefore, linking these sketchy networks to
