Simulation of crop leaf area development
The use of photosynthesis-driven models is hampered by difficulties in predicting the dynamics of crop leaf area development. Lee and Heuvelink (pp. 319-327) show that the combination of prediction of leaf dry mass increase and specific leaf area (SLA) of newly formed leaf dry mass predicts the time course of leaf area index for year-round cut chrysanthemum crops under a wide range of conditions. Leaf dry mass increase is predicted as a fraction of shoot growth rate, which depends on the stage of development. SLA is shown to be a function of light intensity, temperature and plant density.
