Model Virtual Plant Response to Water Deficits

We propose an approach to implement simulation of aboveground part development of individual plant under water deficit. An index called as water deficit degree (WDD) is introduced by Mailhol who use the index to estimate leaf area index at scale of fields to assess water deficit integrating water deficit intensity, duration and plant resistance. But can the index be used to simulate growth of individual plant under water deficit? In this paper, we treat WDD as global index and water potential of organ as local index of the individual plant. We integrate two indexes to model growth of individual plant under water deficit. We analyze effects of WDD on organ growth of maize under contrastive water regimes and validate that WDD can be use to simulate reasonably well for virtual maize under water deficits during the vegetative stage.