Report of the ISHS Working Group on Modeling in Fruit Research and Orchard
Management, Davis CA, 2001
Dr Alan Lakso, Working Group Chair.
The ISHS Working Group on Modeling in Fruit Research convened in Davis,
California, USA 15-18 July
2001 for its 6th
International Symposium entitled "Modeling in Fruit Research and Orchard
Management." The Convenor of the very successful symposium was Dr. Ted DeJong, of the
University of California, Davis. Approximately 60 participants presented papers and
contributed to the many discussions.
The symposium opened with a very stimulating paper and demonstration of the new Lindenmayer Systems (L-Systems) modeling software by Dr. P. Prusinkiewicz, from the University of Calgary, Canada. The software is extremely concise and allows the combination of plant architecture, environment and physiological processes to be simulated together. A presentation by Allen, DeJong and Prusinkiewicz showed how the software was used to model carbon transport and partitioning in the peach tree.
The symposium presentations covered modeling in the areas of fruit crop phenology; crop light interception, carbon production and dry matter partitioning; crop water use; effects of environment, pest and cultural practices on growth, gas exchange, fruit development and productivity; pest and disease dynamics; and decision support systems. Models dealt with many scales of organization from the cellular to the farm level. The crops that were modeled included apple, peach, grape, citrus, coffee, plum, mango and strawberry guava. Some of the crop models have been under development for over 10 years, and are being used to integrate across disciplines, such as cultural practices and pest stresses. Efforts are underway to develop cooperative efforts to model plant development and phenology in varying climates. Throughout the symposium there was a focus on the practical application of models or the respective software. This work group emphasizes the development of sound, realistic models that address real problems of fruit physiology and production.
Dr. Alan Lakso of Cornell University (anl2@cornell.edu), will be Chair for the next term. Dr. Peter Braun of the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Denmark (pbr@kvl.dk) was elected Vice Chair. Dr. Trevor Atkins of HortPlus, New Zealand (trevor.atkins@hortplus.com), was elected Secretary and Webmaster for the group's new web site at: http://www.hortplus.com/ISHSModel/index.htm To sign up for the group mailing list, go to the web site: http://www.ishs.org/sci/sci2.htm and choose F10 Modelling Work Group.
Anyone interested in modeling of any aspect of fruit crops and their management is encouraged to visit the working group website or to contact any of those listed above. The group would like to encourage more participation in the areas of economics modeling for fruit production, and in models that deal with the interfaces between important processes such as plant-pest interactions, structure-function relationships, molecular-whole plant scaling, and integrative responses to climate change. Although the group will not be having a meeting at the IHC in Toronto in 2002, several members will give presentations in the symposia and workshops. The group will convene the 7th symposium in 2004 in Denmark under the leadership of Dr. Peter Braun. Click here for information on the 2004 meeting.