AOBPreview published online on August 10, 2007
Annals of Botany, doi:10.1093/aob/mcm169
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A Dynamical Model of Environmental Effects on Allocation to Carbon-based Secondary Compounds in Juvenile Trees
1 Institute of Soil Ecology, GSF–National Research Center for Environment and Health, Ingolstädter Landstraße 1, D-85764 Neuherberg, Germany
2 Ecophysiology of Plants, Department of Ecology, Technische Universität München, Am Hochanger 13, D-85354 Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany
3 Institute of Biochemical Plant Pathology, GSF–National Research Center for Environment and Health, Ingolstädter Landstraße 1, D-85764 Neuherberg, Germany
4 Unit of Fruit Science, Center of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, Alte Akademie 16, D-85350 Freising, Germany
* For correspondence. E-mail gayler{at}gsf.de
Received: 31 January 2007 Returned for revision: 4 April 2007 Accepted: 30 May 2005
Background and Aims: Patterns and variations in concentration of carbon-based secondary compounds in plant tissues have been explained by means of different complementary and, in some cases, contradictory plant defence hypotheses for more than 20 years. These hypotheses are conceptual models which consider environmental impacts on plant internal demands. In the present study, a mathematical model is presented, which converts and integrates the concepts of the ‘Growth–Differentiation Balance’ hypothesis and the ‘Protein Competition’ model into a dynamic plant growth model, that was tested with concentration data of polyphenols in leaves of juvenile apple, beech and spruce trees. The modelling approach is part of the plant growth model PLATHO that considers simultaneously different environmental impacts on the most important physiological processes of plants.
Methods: The modelling approach for plant internal resource allocation is based on a priority scheme assuming that growth processes have priority over allocation to secondary compounds and that growth-related metabolism is more strongly affected by nitrogen deficiency than defence-related secondary metabolism.
Key Results: It is shown that the model can reproduce the effect of nitrogen fertilization on allocation patterns in apple trees and the effects of elevated CO2 and competition in juvenile beech and spruce trees. The analysis of model behaviour reveals that large fluctuations in plant internal availability of carbon and nitrogen are possible within a single vegetation period. Furthermore, the model displays a non-linear allocation behaviour to carbon-based secondary compounds.
Conclusions: The simulation results corroborate the underlying assumptions of the presented modelling approach for resource partitioning between growth-related primary metabolism and defence-related secondary metabolism. Thus, the dynamical modelling approach, which considers variable source and sink strengths of plant internal resources within different phenological growth stages, presents a successful translation of existing concepts into a dynamic mathematical model.
Key words: Plant growth, carbon-based secondary compounds, plant defence hypotheses, simulation model, phenolic allocation, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, Malus domestica, Fagus sylvatica, Picea abies
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