TY - JOUR

T1 - Call for Participation

T2 - Collaborative Benchmarking of Functional-Structural Root Architecture Models. The Case of Root Water Uptake

AU - Schnepf, Andrea

AU - Black, Christopher K.

AU - Couvreur, Valentin

AU - Delory, Benjamin M.

AU - Doussan, Claude

AU - Koch, Axelle

AU - Koch, Timo

AU - Javaux, Mathieu

AU - Landl, Magdalena

AU - Leitner, Daniel

AU - Lobet, Guillaume

AU - Mai, Trung Hieu

AU - Meunier, Félicien

AU - Petrich, Lukas

AU - Postma, Johannes A.

AU - Priesack, Eckart

AU - Schmidt, Volker

AU - Vanderborght, Jan

AU - Vereecken, Harry

AU - Weber, Matthias

N1 - AS acknowledges funding by the German Research Foundation (grant number SCHN 1361/3-1). VC was supported by the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS, grant FC84104). VS acknowledges funding by the German Research Foundation (grant number SCHM 997/33-1). This research was institutionally funded by the Helmholtz Association (POF III Program—Research Fields Key Technologies for the Bioeconomy and Terrestrial Environment). CB acknowledges funding by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), U.S. Department of Energy, under Award Number DE-AR0000821. This manuscript has been released as a pre-print at bioRxiv (Schnepf et al., 2019).

PY - 2020/3/31

Y1 - 2020/3/31

N2 - Three-dimensional models of root growth, architecture and function are becoming important tools that aid the design of agricultural management schemes and the selection of beneficial root traits. However, while benchmarking is common in many disciplines that use numerical models, such as natural and engineering sciences, functional-structural root architecture models have never been systematically compared. The following reasons might induce disagreement between the simulation results of different models: different representation of root growth, sink term of root water and solute uptake and representation of the rhizosphere. Presently, the extent of discrepancies is unknown, and a framework for quantitatively comparing functional-structural root architecture models is required. We propose, in a first step, to define benchmarking scenarios that test individual components of complex models: root architecture, water flow in soil and water flow in roots. While the latter two will focus mainly on comparing numerical aspects, the root architectural models have to be compared at a conceptual level as they generally differ in process representation. Therefore, defining common inputs that allow recreating reference root systems in all models will be a key challenge. In a second step, benchmarking scenarios for the coupled problems are defined. We expect that the results of step 1 will enable us to better interpret differences found in step 2. This benchmarking will result in a better understanding of the different models and contribute toward improving them. Improved models will allow us to simulate various scenarios with greater confidence and avoid bugs, numerical errors or conceptual misunderstandings. This work will set a standard for future model development.

AB - Three-dimensional models of root growth, architecture and function are becoming important tools that aid the design of agricultural management schemes and the selection of beneficial root traits. However, while benchmarking is common in many disciplines that use numerical models, such as natural and engineering sciences, functional-structural root architecture models have never been systematically compared. The following reasons might induce disagreement between the simulation results of different models: different representation of root growth, sink term of root water and solute uptake and representation of the rhizosphere. Presently, the extent of discrepancies is unknown, and a framework for quantitatively comparing functional-structural root architecture models is required. We propose, in a first step, to define benchmarking scenarios that test individual components of complex models: root architecture, water flow in soil and water flow in roots. While the latter two will focus mainly on comparing numerical aspects, the root architectural models have to be compared at a conceptual level as they generally differ in process representation. Therefore, defining common inputs that allow recreating reference root systems in all models will be a key challenge. In a second step, benchmarking scenarios for the coupled problems are defined. We expect that the results of step 1 will enable us to better interpret differences found in step 2. This benchmarking will result in a better understanding of the different models and contribute toward improving them. Improved models will allow us to simulate various scenarios with greater confidence and avoid bugs, numerical errors or conceptual misunderstandings. This work will set a standard for future model development.

KW - Ecosystems Research

KW - benchmark

KW - call for participation

KW - functional-structural root architecture models

KW - model comparison

KW - root water uptake

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85083330900&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3389/fpls.2020.00316

DO - 10.3389/fpls.2020.00316

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 32296451

AN - SCOPUS:85083330900

VL - 11

JO - Frontiers in Plant Science

JF - Frontiers in Plant Science

SN - 1664-462X

M1 - 316

ER -