Computational model to build virtual canopies of strawberry

Virtual canopies are used in ecophysiological models to study how plants work. The purpose of this work was to develop a computer model to build virtual canopies of strawberry plants and evaluate the ability of these to simulate intercepted radiation (approximated with the void fraction), fundamental to the processes of photosynthesis and transpiration. The model represents each plant as a set of sheets, from the average surface of its central leaflet, the average number of leaves per plant and planting geometry. The relationship between the size of leaflets and petiole follow normal distribution functions, adjusted with field data. Data was collected in three sampling areas of 1 m 2 , in a plot of production, where leaves were measured four times to simulate different densities of vegetation. Simultaneously, photographs were taken from illumination angles at, 0 o , 15 o and 30 o , to measure the void fraction near nadir, to estimate the light intercepted by the leaves around solar noon. The model was used to build virtual canopies equivalent to those measured in field. Linear correlations between the void fraction (from each illumination angle) of the actual canopy (photographs) and virtual (projections) were calculated; obtaining r> 0.98 and RMSE <0.023. The model satisfactorily represents