Identifying key process parameters in a sink-source interaction model for energy crops

The ‘design’ of novel crops or the selection of new ideotypes is particularly relevant for bioenergy crops because these are often less well known with regard to their growth potential and environmental demands. We, therefore, developed a generic growth model, which integrates developmental, morphological and physiological processes and which we first applied to Miscanthus giganteus, a popular biomass crop. Many of the pheno-morphological and physiological parameters of these C4 grasses are known, and we aimed to rank the model parameters for their relative importance using a global sensitivity analysis and thus aide the selection and breeding process. The purpose of this paper is to briefly describe the key principles of this model, which is based on these two parameter groups, and to discuss the implications of parameter ranking in a global sensitivity analysis for further research.