Optimization and Systems Theory Seminar
Monday, September 15, 2003, 14.00-15.00, Room 3721, Lindstedtsv. 25

Professor Per-Olof Gutman
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Division of Environmental, Water, and Agricultural Engineering
Technion ­ Israel Institute of Technology
Haifa, Israel
E-mail: peo@techunix.technion.ac.il

On the botanic model of plant growth with intermediate vegetative­ reproductive stage

The application of dynamic optimization to mathematical models of ontogenetic bi­ological growth has been the subject of numerous researches (see e. g. Cohen, 1971). Kozlowsky and Ziolko, 1988, Ziolko and Kozlowski, 1995, presented a model with gradual transition from vegetative to reproductive growth. The central point of their model is a mixed state­control constraint on the rate of reproductive growth, which leads to a mixed vegetative­reproductive growth period. Their model is modified here in order to take into account the difference of photosynthesis use efficiency when energy is accumulated in the vegetative and in the reproductive organs of plants, respectively. The strict mathematical solution of the optimal control problem is presented, the numerical example from Kozlowsky and Ziolko, 1988 is solved, and the results are compared. The influence of the length of the season and the relative photosynthesis use efficiency, as well as of the potential sink demand of the repro­ductive organs, on the location and duration of the mixed vegetative­ reproduction period of growth is investigated numerically.

This is joint work with Ilya Ioslovich.


Calendar of seminars
Last update: September 1, 2003 by Anders Forsgren, anders.forsgren@math.kth.se.