MODELING OPTIMAL PLANT BIOMASS PARTITIONING

A theoretical framework is presented to quantitatively describe the dynamics of biomass partitioning in plants. The approach is based on the assumption that nitrogen supply is limiting plant growth, and hence the nitrogen concentration of leaves is adjusted in such a way that the relative growth rate of the plant is maximized. Special emphasis is put on the incorporation of time-varying environmental conditions and on the inclusion of a stem compartment. Furthermore, the nitrogen concentrations may vary between leaves, stems and roots. Simulations show that the qualitative behaviour of the model is consistent with empirical and theoretical results.