Towards More Realistic Leaf Shapes in Functional-Structural Plant Models

Abstract

Fluctuating asymmetry in plant leaves is a widely used measure in geometric morphometrics for assessing random deviations from perfect symmetry. In this study, we considered the concept of fluctuating asymmetry to improve the prototype leaf shape of the functional-structural plant model L-Cucumber. The overall objective was to provide a realistic geometric representation of the leaves for the light sensitive plant reactions in the virtual plant model. Based on three-dimensional data from several hundred in situ digitized cucumber leaves comparisons of model leaves and measurements were conducted. Robust Bayesian comparison of groups was used to assess statistical differences between leaf halves while respecting fluctuating asymmetries. Results indicated almost no directional asymmetry in leaves comparing different distances from the prototype while detecting systematic deviations shared by both halves. This information was successfully included in an improved leaf prototype and implemented in the virtual plant model L-Cucumber. Comparative virtual plant simulations revealed a slight improvement in plant internode development against experimental data using the novel leaf shape. Further studies can now focus on analyses of stress on the 3D-deformation of the leaf and the development of a dynamic leaf shape model.

Modelling Approach for Predicting the Impact of Changing Temperature Conditions on Grapevine Canopy Architectures

“…The three-dimensional structure of the canopy was recorded using an electromagnetic 3D-digisiter ("Fastrak", Polhemus, Colchester, U.S.). Kahlen and Stützel [31] and Schmidt and Kahlen [32] described the general digitisation procedure. The specific digitisation protocol applied to the grapevines took into account the topological relationships between main organs, and was designed to allow the reconstruction of the guyot cane, primary shoots, lateral shoots, leaves and flowers.…”

Cross-Sectional Performance of Hollow Square Prisms with Rounded Edges

“…It should be also emphasized that attempts to reproduce the complex morphology of plants mathematically have great academic significance [20][21][22][23][24] and high applied value from the perspective of biomimetic technology [25,26]. In this respect, the mathematical model proposed in this paper can be expected to contribute to obtain better understandings of the mechanical properties of plants with polygonal culms and stems and to develop the plant-mimetic optimal design of high-rise buildings and hollow pipe structures.…”

Determination of the Optimal Orientation of Chinese Solar Greenhouses Using 3D Light Environment Simulations

“…In the process of collection, a ruler was set next to the leaves to calibrate the image scale (Figure 3b), and ImageJ (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA) was further used for image analysis [25]. Similar to the digitalization process of cucumber leaves [26], it was found that selecting 28 landmarks can effectively restore the shape of melon leaves through data comparison (Figure 3c). By defining the base of the leaf as the origin, the space coordinates of 28 landmarks were obtained to realize the virtual reconstruction of the leaf (Figure 3d).…”