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Published on: May 9, 2020
Crop models: integrating systems from the molecular to global for agricultural productivity and sustainability
Ximin Piao1, Megan L Matthews1
1Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, United States; DOE Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, United States; Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, United States.
Abstract:
Mathematical models that simulate crop growth in response to environmental conditions and management practices are essential tools for exploring agriculture-based strategies to address food security and environmental sustainability challenges. Early applications of crop models focused on supporting farmers in making management decisions. Applications have since expanded to estimating future impacts on local and global food production from changing climates. Emerging applications of crop models aim to leverage how these models integrate plant processes across biological scales to identify engineering or breeding strategies that account for environmentally-responsive dynamics at field scales and for exploring solutions to improve sustainability. In this review, we highlight recent studies across these four broad application areas and highlight potential future directions for the crop modeling field.
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