Report of the ISHS Working Group on Modeling in Fruit Research – F10
Submitted by A.N. Lakso, Work Group Chair 

The ISHS Working Group on Modeling in Fruit Research convened its 7^th International Symposium entitled “Modeling in Fruit Research and Orchard Management” in Copenhagen, Denmark June 20-24, 2004 at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (KVL).  The Convenor of the very successful symposium was Dr. Peter Braun, of the KVL.  Great appreciation was extended to Peter, his colleagues, and even his family for the great effort, and wonderful hospitality.  The sponsorship by KVL and the Henrik Tofte Jacobsen Legat was appreciated.  Approximately 60 authors from 19 countries presented papers and contributed to the many discussions.   

The unique diversity in disciplines, crops and locations represented in the participants was an outstanding feature of the meeting that led to fascinating discussions and new international friendships.   The symposium presentations covered modeling in many areas:  fruit crop phenology; climate change effects, crop carbon production and dry matter partitioning; crop water use; effects of environment, pest and cultural practices on growth, gas exchange, vegetative growth and plant architecture, fruit development and related fundamental biology; pest and disease dynamics; root growth and physiology, and decision support systems.  Models dealt with many scales of organization from the molecular to the farm level.   The crops that were modeled included apple, peach, grape, citrus, kiwi, cherry, currents, mango and strawberry guava.  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 growth and physiology, crop production, pest dynamics, responses to environment, decision support and model development.

A general trend was that the crop physiology models have been evolving to integrate more with grower practices to increase their usefulness in practice as well as elucidating the regulation of crop growth.  To that purpose, two invited speakers addressed the integration of such modeling to more complex topics.  Dr. Mikhail Semenov of the Rothamsted Research Station, UK, reviewed the use of weather generators in crop modeling, a topic very relevant to estimating crop responses to climate differences and climate change.  Dr. Jan Nyrop of Cornell University, USA, discussed the progress and gaps related to the integration of models of pest impacts on fruit crops.  This presentation emphasized how the area of pest-crop interactions is now primarily limited by inadequate understanding and modeling of the crop responses to pest injury.   Several other contributions were notable.  A presentation regarding modeling carbon allocation to roots by D. Eissenstat, addressed a long-ignored area of root system growth and physiology.  A discussion of a model of peach architecture and physiology by M. Allen, T. DeJong and P.Prusinkiewicz demonstrated the first use of L-Systems modeling (a rapidly emerging modeling language) in fruit research. 

Finally, the revolution in web-based technologies has led to great strides in the development and employment of decision support systems for fruit growers and pest management specialists.  Examples were provided for citrus management in Florida by G. Albrigo, H. Beck, et al., for apple insect pest management in Switzerland by B. Graf, et al., and for integration of crop management in Argentina by E. Cittadini.

Dr. Peter Braun of the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Denmark (pbr@kvl.dk) was elected Chair of the Working Group by the participants succeeding Dr. Alan Lakso of Cornell University. Dr. Trevor Atkins of HortPlus, New Zealand (trevor.atkins@hortplus.com), was re-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 group’s ISHS web site: http://www.ishs.org/sci/F10.htm.  We are ISHS code F10 Modeling 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, gene function-plant physiology, and integrative responses to climate change.  The group agreed to convene the 8^th symposium in 2007 in beautiful Wadenswil or Zurich, Switzerland under the leadership of Dr. Jorg Samietz  (joerg.samietz@ipw.agrl.ethz.ch).   Watch for meeting information on the web sites in the future.

The following is the pre-Symposium Information, retained as historical record

>> View a list of paper titles scheduled for presentation (Adobe Acrobat format).

A message from Dr Peter Braun, Symposium Convenor

The Symposium will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark from the 20-24 June 2004 (Sunday, the 20th arrival and welcome and start on Monday the 21st in the morning).

Topics:
There is great interest particularly in the climate scenario-crop model linkage, the pest/disease modelling in relation to crop development, the adaptation of such models for decision support systems and decision support systems in general. Also, a review and discussion on the "current frontiers" in our work as well as the discussion on "where to" is of great interest and will be part of the meeting. Furthermore, the half-day workshop on an introduction to modelling tools will take place. This of course does not exclude any of the other topics but here is where a great interest has been shown so far.

So, overall, it will be an exciting meeting with room for presentations, but also for a proper discussion of the topics and the development of further cooperation. We can all look forward to a fascinating exchange of ideas.

Although the interest is great, abstract submission has been late. Therefore we decided to change the deadlines for abstracts to the end of January 2004. The abstract format is that of Acta Horticulturae (you will find a description attached) with a one page maximum and only title, authors and addresses and abstract included.

Accommodation:
Currently I am negotiating with hotels and you will get more info on that soon. The symposium will take place near the centre of Copenhagen and suggested hotels will all be in the centre.

Registration:
The final details about bank account and payment options will also come soon.

Companion program:
There will not be a dedicated companion program. Instead we will offer detailed advice on all possibilities for sight-seeing (and there are plenty on Copenhagen and surroundings) throughout the symposium to all who are interested. Generally, a double room does not increase the price that much in comparison to a single.

Please remember the new deadline for abstracts.

Best wishes and we look forward to welcoming you over here in Copenhagen.

Peter Braun (symposium convenor)

Dr. Peter Braun
email: pbr@kvl.dk
Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University
Dept. of Agric. Sci.
Sct. Horticulture
Højbakegårds Alle 21
DK-2630 Taastrup
Denmark

Invitation to participate

Dear colleagues,

With great pleasure I want to invite you to the upcoming meeting on modelling in fruit research. You will find the 1st announcement attached to this mail.
We do stand in a tradition of bringing together scientists and advisors with a wide range of experience interested in all aspects of modelling and its applications. With this symposium we want to foster even more the contact between interested newcomers to the field, who might just think this might be interesting and a help to their work, and more experienced people working with different modelling approaches. The focus is clearly on the problems tackled and approaches used. You will find a short outline of the topics for sessions in the attached announcement.

To foster the discussion and development in the field even more we have decided to integrate three more sessions in addition to the presentation and poster sessions.

- we offer a 1/2 day workshop on starting a model from scratch using easy to comprehend visual modelling tools. You will learn the basic concepts and structure of models, the integration of a relationship between two or more factors and the integration of data and observations from experiments into a simple model. This workshop is intended for newcomers who are interested to learn if they can also use such techniques for the problems and applications they have.

- we furthermore will have an intensive discussion session on how to couple a "crop model" to climate change scenarios. How is that possible, what are the requirements from the crop model side and how are the requirements and possibilities today from the climate data side? We will have a key note lecture on the potential and limitations of weather generators vs other approaches substituted by a small number of talks on already existing experience on coupling crop models to climate change scenarios. We hereby invite proposals for such talks. This should make up for a good and lively discussion.

- we furthermore will include a general discussion session on where to go from here. How do the different modelling approaches and solutions for problems relate to down to earth problems and questions from the practical side? In which direction will the development in the different areas be? Are we using the right apporaches, is there need for concerted actions and how to do this? This session should foster the access to existing expertise between participants.


The symposium will be from the 20th - 24th of June 2004 with arrival and welcome reception on Sunday, the 20th and the program starting on the morning of the 21st going through to the afternoon of the 24th. A 1/2 day of experiencing Copenhagen is included. The venue will be near the center of Copenhagen at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University.

I would like to ask you to spread this announcement around, especially since changes in the organisational structure in some countries have led to changed email addresses and mass postal mailings are not done.

I hereby invite all those interested in participation to express their interest by replying to this email, and if already possible, indicating, if an oral or a poster presentation is proposed. For more information on deadlines see the attached 1st announcement.
All further information will be sent to those expressing their interest and replying to this email.
Also, any further questions should be directed to the convenor.

I look forward to welcoming you to an exciting meeting and to a lively and interesting city in the north of Europe.

Best wishes

Peter Braun (convenor) for the organising committee



Dr. Peter Braun
Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University
Dept. of Agric. Sci.
Sct. Horticulture
Højbakegårds Alle 21
DK-2630 Taastrup
Denmark