Presentation of CPlantBox: a whole functional-structural plant model (root and shoot) coupled with a mechanistic resolution of carbon and water flows

Abstract

Plant growth and development are limited by the available resources. The carbon and water flows are both important content and indicators of resource translocations. Modelling is helpful to increase the spatial and temporal resolutions of carbon and water reallocations in plants. However, the mechanism of carbon and water translocations has not been coupled into a whole Functional-Structural Plant Model (FSPM) yet. Here we developed a FSPM called CPlantBox which could (1) simulate the growth and development of the full plant structure (both root and shoot); (2) connect to a mechanistic model of water and carbon flow (PiafMunch). Our results demonstrate how carbon and water are flowing inside a plant which has three sources (leaf) and two sinks (root). We anticipate the model can be used as a tool to explore the variabilities and possibilities of plant behavior. Furthermore, several tool sets will be developed to visualize the morphological and physiological attributes of plants, which are helpful to deepen our understanding of plants and produce more with less.