Simulation of Soil-Plant Processes: From Single Roots over 3D Root Architecture to Crops and Vegetation Types

Vanderborght, Jan [Agrosphere Institute, IBG-3, Forschungszentrum of Juelich, Germany] Schnepf, Andrea [Agrosphere Institute, IBG-3, Forschungszentrum of Juelich, Germany] Javaux, Mathieu [UCL] Lobet, Guillaume [UCL] Leitner, Daniel [Simulationswerkstatt, Linz, Austria] Couvreur, Valentin [UCL] Meunier, Félicien [Computational and Applied Vegetation Ecology Lab, Ghent University, Belgium] Vereecken, Harry [Agrosphere Institute, IBG-3, Forschungszentrum of Juelich, Germany] et al.[show all]

Many important functions of the soil and the land surface are related to processes that take place in the root zone at the interface between the soil and the vegetation. Jan Hopmans has made significant contributions that provided new insights in these processes and that inspired new research. Of special notice is his pioneering work on imaging root systems and on soil-root process simulations that resolve 3D root architectures. In this presentation, we present insights that we derived from imaging and simulation of soil-root processes. We developed the R_SWMS and CROOTBox codes that link features of 3D root systems to their functions with respect to water and nutrient uptake. 3D representations of root systems in simulation models can effectively valorize information obtained with novel measurements techniques which allow functional structural imaging and monitoring of root processes. These models allow for functional phenotyping of root systems. Finally, these models were used to couple soil conditions (water content and salinity) to crop and vegetation stresses and to derive mechanistic representations of these relations in larger scale soil, crop and land surface models. The importance of the root system for the interaction of the crop or vegetation with its environment calls for a better mechanistic understanding of the development and plasticity of root systems. Currently, we are developing CPLANTBOX, a functional-structural soil-plant model which simulates the distribution of assimilates and plant growth in function of environmental conditions by coupling carbon assimilates and water fluxes in 3D whole-plant architectures.