Some Parameter Estimation Issues in Functional-Structural Plant Modelling

Author： Cournède P.-H. Letort V. Mathieu A. Kang M. Z. Lemaire S. Trevezas S. Houllier F. de Reffye P.

E-ISSN： 1760-6101|6|2|133-159

ISSN： 0973-5348

Source： Mathematical Modelling of Natural Phenomena , Vol.6, Iss.2, 2011-03, pp. : 133-159

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Abstract

The development of functional-structural plant models has opened interesting perspectives for a better understanding of plant growth as well as for potential applications in breeding or decision aid in farm management. Parameterization of such models is however a difficult issue due to the complexity of the involved biological processes and the interactions between these processes. The estimation of parameters from experimental data by inverse methods is thus a crucial step. This paper presents some results and discussions as first steps towards the construction of a general framework for the parametric estimation of functional-structural plant models. A general family of models of Carbon allocation formalized as dynamic systems serves as the basis for our study. An adaptation of the 2-stage Aitken estimator to this family of model is introduced as well as its numerical implementation, and applied in two different situations: first a morphogenetic model of sugar beet growth with simple plant structure, multi-stage and detailed observations, and second a tree growth model characterized by sparse observations and strong interactions between functioning and organogenesis. The proposed estimation method appears robust, easy to adapt to a wide variety of models, and generally provides a satisfactory goodness-of-fit. However, it does not allow a proper evaluation of estimation uncertainty. Finally some perspectives opened by the theory of hidden models are discussed.