Host,E; Rauscher,M; Iserbrands,J; Dickmann,D; Dickson,R;
Crow,T; Michael,D (1990): Ecophys. (U.S Dept. of Agriculture,
1992 Folwell Ave., St. Paul, Minnesota 55108>  
     [BIOLOGY, ECOLOGY, PHYSIOLOGY, DOS]
<This is an explanatory whole-tree process model that simulates the 
growth of Populus during the establishment year. Ecophys allows the 
user to change physiological based factors that influence the growth 
of Populus. It is helpful to know how these factors affect growth in 
order to identify a genetic selection criteria, which may be used 
for the selection and breeding of poplar clones. The program 
consists of three primary modules which control the actual 
simulation and several supporting modules which allow physiological, 
environmental, and simulation parameters to be modified. In a 
typical run the user chooses form the main menu the desired clonal 
and environmental conditions, specifies the beginning and ending 
date for the simulation, and selects the screen and printer reports 
to be generated during run. Once all initial conditions are 
specified, the user selects RUN SIMULATION from the MAIN MENU and 
the program control passed to the SIMULATE module. SIMULATE keeps 
track of the hours and days and passes control to HOURSTEP or GROW 
modules, as appropriate. When the ending date is reached summary of 
reports are printed or written to disk files, and program control
is passed back to MAIN MENU. At this point a graphic representation 
of the tree may be viewed on the screen or sent to a plotter for 
output, in my opinion the graphics are not very clear nor very 
sophisticated. Other than this I thought that this is a very good 
model. It can be used to simulate the growth of poplars under 
varying environmental conditions, simulations that would be 
difficult to conduct as field experiments, and it is easy to use 
and get familiar with in a short time. (REVIEW ?: RATING = 7)> 

From:
                   LISTING OF SOFTWARE (7/93)
       QUANTITATIVE CURRICULUM FOR LIFE SCIENCE STUDENTS
                    (Supported by NSF Grant)


REVIEWER 1 - Azmy Ackleh  
REVIEWER 2 - Shannon Peak 
REVIEWER 3 - Holly Gaff

For more information contact:
Dr. Louis J. Gross
Mathematics Department 
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-1300
(615) 974-4295    (615) 974-6576 (FAX)
gross@utkvx.utk.edu