Abstract

Poplar (salicaceae) is one of the widest planted fast-growing trees in the world. It is not only used for timber, but also used as windbreak and ecological protection of forest widely. The architecture of poplar has direct impact on poplar’s growth and applications, but poplar’s architecture still has not been discussed deeply in previous poplar models because of the difficulties raised by measurement, data processing and parameterization. This paper aimed to collect the biomass and architecture data of poplars of different ages, and construct the functional-structural model of poplar based on GreenLab. The selected poplar variety was poplar 107 (Populus × euramericana cv. Neva). The biomass and architecture data were collected from four trees with 3, 4, 5 and 6 years old, respectively. The architecture was simplified by classifying the branches into several types (physiological age) according to the length and size. Based on GreenLab model, some parameters were obtained and some strong correlation coefficients were got. The comparison between the measured and simulated results was given for the trunk data of all trees. The topological structures of poplar at different tree ages were reconstructed. This paper was a exploration of poplar growth simulation based on GreenLab model, and was a good reference in the Functional-Structural model construction of complex trees.

Key words: Poplar, Populus × euramericana cv. Neva, GreenLab, growth and development, parametric identification.

Abbreviation

GU, Growth unit; PA, physiological age; CA, chronological age; SLW, specific leaf weight.