Respiration Modelling and Hypothesis Testing with a Dynamic Model of Sugar Beet Growth

Abstract

Respiration was predicted quantitatively during sugar-beet growth simulations by assuming an intimate coupling to growth and maintenance processes. Changes in the growth and maintenance respiratory coefficients for successive simulations expressed alternative hypotheses regarding the nature of that coupling. Large differences in yield, partitioning patterns, and the relative importance of the growth and maintenance components were predicted in response to changes in respiratory coefficients within the range considered physiologically realistic.