Tree growth modelling
“Advancing physiological modelling of forest growth by considering wood formation with turgor at its core”
While the process of photosynthesis and its environmental influences are well understood in plant biology, a comparable model for wood formation remains elusive. Advancing this area is crucial for foresters seeking reliable predictions of forest productivity and dynamics, as well as for global vegetation models that aim to accurately predict the global carbon budget. Our research strives to advance wood formation and carbon allocation modeling, with a focus on understanding its sensitivity to environmental factors on both short (daily) and longer (decadal) time scales.
This ambitious research direction adopts a bottom-up approach rooted in ecophysiological principles, simulating the key limiting factors for wood production. We emphasize the relationship between water availability in the cambial zone and the turgor pressure necessary for cell formation and elongation. Our work relies on high-resolution ecophysiological measurements and weekly monitoring of wood formation using micro-coring techniques, complemented by controlled experiments on juvenile trees in greenhouses. Furthermore, we integrate these findings with forest stand-level processes to capture changes in forest yield in terms relevant to forestry. Factors such as forest structure, stand age, and species composition are of particular interest in this stand-level modeling.
For more information on this research, please contact Richard L. Peters or Peter Biber. An overview of related projects can be found here.
Example of a turgor-driven growth model and the measurements that are required for the simulations of high-resolution growth (Dxylem; orange line at 1). This example is adjusted from Peters et al. (2021).