IPhenology

An interface that defines the contract for phenology models in APSIM NG, providing access to plant developmental stage information and growth phase tracking.

Overview

The IPhenology interface serves as the foundational contract for all phenology models in the Plant Modelling Framework (PMF) (Brown et al. 2013). It provides a standardized way to access critical developmental information about a plant’s growth stage, including the current phenological phase, numeric stage values, and emergence status. This interface ensures that different phenology implementations can be used interchangeably while maintaining consistent access to essential developmental data.

Phenology models implementing this interface track plant development through discrete growth phases (such as emergence, vegetative growth, reproductive development, and maturity), allowing other plant components to respond appropriately to developmental changes. The interface supports both continuous stage numbers and the widely-used Zadok scale for crop development staging.

Model Structure

This section describes how this model is positioned within the APSIM framework. It outlines the broader structural and computational components that define its role and interactions in the simulation system.

This model inherits structural and functional behaviour from the following core APSIM components:

Model Variables

This section lists the key variables that describe or control the behaviour of this component. Some variables can be adjusted by the user to modify how the model behaves (configurable), while others are calculated internally and can be viewed as model outputs (reportable). For a general explanation of variable types and how they are used within the APSIM Next Generation framework, see the Model Variables Overview.

Configurable and Reportable Properties

Property Type Description
Stage double A one-based stage number representing the current developmental stage. Can be set to initialize or adjust the phenological state.

Read-Only Reportable Properties

Property Type Description
CurrentPhase IPhase The current phenological phase object, providing detailed information about the active growth stage.
Zadok double The current Zadok growth stage number, a decimal scale commonly used in cereal crop management (e.g., 10 = emergence, 30 = stem elongation, 65 = anthesis).
Emerged bool Indicates whether the crop has emerged from the soil. Returns true after emergence, false before.

See Also

References

Brown, Hamish E., Peter D. Jamieson, Ian R. Brooking, Derrick J. Moot, and Neil I. Huth. 2013. “Integration of Molecular and Physiological Models to Explain Time of Anthesis in Wheat.” Annals of Botany 112 (9): 1683–703. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mct224.