General Structural Model of Crop Root System Based on the Dual-scale Automaton

The topological structural model of root system was developed in this study, which was the first work of developing a functional-structural model of root system. Referring to the equal thermal interval, the basic structural unit of root (UR) was defined, and then the branching density (BD) and branch probabilities branching probability vector (BP) of UR were used to describe the number and type of lateral primordia of root. Based on the definition, the revised dual-scale automaton was adopted to simulate the structure change of root system which consisted of the URs. The characteristics of the model were utilizing the framework of the dual-scale automaton and parameters describing the branching and growth of root system. It is convenient to integrate the above ground model and below ground model of plant with the same time scale and details Based on this study.