Modelling individual variations in plant productivity and resource-dependent mortality is a key issue in population dynamic models. The present study examined two classical approaches to account for plant productivity in functional-structural plant models (i.e. the up-scalin g of a leaf photosynthesis model, and the down-scalin g of a canopy production model) and compares them in their ability to account for the size-structure of a population of alfalfa plants competin g for li g ht. The two models differed mainly in their formulation of the plant carbon balance. Only the leaf approach included a respiration sub-model and was able to predict self-thinnin g and chan g es in radiation use efficiency amon g plants. Variations in plant mass were however mainly explained by differences in li g ht interception. The two models behaved quite well to simulate the mass distribution of survivin g plants, the leaf model bein g clearly more difficult to calibrate.
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