Plants to ecosystems: advances in computational life sciences.

This book presents the conceptual and methodological view of the plant modelling as it is currently developing by some of the world's leading authorities. Contributions have come from some of the world's leading computer-modelling laboratories, CSIRO Supercomputing, CIRAD, INRA and the Universities of Amsterdam, Calgary and Manitoba.

The methods presented in the book are tools for the modelling, visualising and studying the growth, dynamics, and ageing of plants and marine sessile organisms. Much of the work is based on formal L-systems which use replication rules rather than continuous or discrete mathematical descriptions of a biological form. Prunsinkiewicz and the other contributors show how L-systems can simulate the development of multicellular organisms and thus address the central problem of morphogenesis - understanding how living organisms acquire their form. The methodology takes into account external factors such as soil water flow, soil porosity, plant hormones, fertilisers and even the damage caused by insects to the plant. Prospective applications include: computer-assisted landscape architecture, design of new varieties of plants, crop yield prediction, optimal fertilisation planning, watering and pest control, bush-fire modelling, plant-landscape interactions such as predicting the geographic distribution of species, simulating community dynamics, analysing species viability, matching crops to suitable farming districts, locating rare species, relocating endangered species and predicting possible effects of climate change.

Computer modelling narrows the range of time consuming real-world experiments otherwise required. It is important for use in research, education and decision making - images, animation and interactive systems are now central to developmental biology, remote sensing, biodiversity, ecology and conservation.