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Title: SIMULATING RESPONSE TO TEMPERATURE

Author
item HUNT, L - UNIV. OF GUELPH, CANADA
item YAN, W. - UNIV. OF GUELPH, CANADA
item McMaster, Gregory

Submitted to: CIMMYT Symposium Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/10/2002
Publication Date: 12/5/2003
Citation: Hunt, L.A., Yan, W., Mcmaster, G.S. 2003. Simulating response to temperature. CIMMYT Symposium Proceedings. Proceedings of the Maize and Wheat Systems Modeling Workshop, April 23-25, 2001. CIMMYT, Natural Resources Group, Geographic Information Systems, Series 03-01. pp. 23-29.

Interpretive Summary: Temperature is a critical factor influencing plant growth, development, and yield. Therefore, accurately summarizing plant temperature responses is for successful modeling of crop systems and application of models to management. This paper reviews various equations that have been used to describe the temperature response of a number of crop plants. The Beta function, as used in some recent analyses, has been shown to summarize data dealing with the overall growth and development of maize and wheat in a realistic manner. However, consideration of work dealing with photosynthesis indicated that the function may not be appropriate for all processes, especially processes such as photosynthesis which involves many sub-processes, each with its own response characteristics. Further, different parameters may be necessary for different genotypes, at different times during a plant=s life cycle or in different geographic regions. Careful consideration of all such aspects will be necessary for accurate simulation over different regions, or over contrasting climate change scenarios. An approach involving interpolation (possibly non-linear) between data points describing specific temperature responses, rather than a mathematical function, may well have the widest utility.

Technical Abstract: Temperature is one of the most important factors that determines plant growth, development, and yield. Accurate summarization of plant temperature response is thus a prerequisite to successful modeling of crop systems and application of models to management. This paper reviews various equations that have been used to describe the temperature response of a number of crop plants. The Beta function, as used in some recent analyses, has been shown to summarize data dealing with the overall growth and development of maize and wheat in a realistic manner. However, consideration of work dealing with photosynthesis indicated that the function may not be appropriate for all processes, especially processes such as photosynthesis which involves many sub-processes, each with its own response characteristics. Further, different parameters may be necessary for different genotypes, at different times during a plant=s life cycle or in different geographic regions. Careful consideration of all such aspects will be necessary for accurate simulation over different regions, or over contrasting climate change scenarios. An approach involving interpolation (possibly non-linear) between data points describing specific temperature responses, rather than a mathematical function, may well have the widest utility.