Digital twin for lettuce growth in six climate zones (‘Climate 2050′)

This study investigates lettuce growth under extreme environmental conditions by simulating the weather in six climate zones in a plant growth chamber, including Lleida, Adelaide, Paris, San Luis, Singapore, and Fairbanks. The experiment involved weekly exposure to a new city’s climate, simulating “...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Liang, Shu, Van Duc Long, Nguyen, Parvin, Mst Irin, Escribà i Gelonch, Marc, Lantin, Stephen, Hessel, Volker
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10459.1/468747
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2025.110880
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/468747
http://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/468747
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Digital twin
Machine learning
Lettuce growth
Descripción
Sumario:This study investigates lettuce growth under extreme environmental conditions by simulating the weather in six climate zones in a plant growth chamber, including Lleida, Adelaide, Paris, San Luis, Singapore, and Fairbanks. The experiment involved weekly exposure to a new city’s climate, simulating “non-terrestrial weather stress,” which is also motivated from the vantage point of space plant growth and its process-control limitations. These simulated conditions shed light on ‘Climate 2050’, when Earth will probably have harsher and more fluctuating conditions. For the period investigated, the real temperature changes could be reproduced well and in real-time in the growth chamber, the actual rain fall was mimicked, and the lighting period was adjusted to the real sunshine exposure in the respective city. The virtual move of the lettuce plant from between six climates with their own profile in temperature, lighting time, and water is assumed to create stress beyond the variability of a weather change within a single climate. Machine learning models, including linear regression, random forest regression, and boosted decision tree regression, were employed to predict weekly lettuce biomass and yield. This study successfully demonstrated the application of machine learning algorithms for predicting lettuce growth under the given range of six climate conditions. Among the tested models, random forest regression consistently delivered the most accurate and reliable biomass predictions, achieving an R2 of nearly 99 % and MAPE of 6 % in all scenarios. By introducing tuned correction factors for conditions like drought stress, fertilisation, and mixed soil composition, the accuracy and flexibility of models are enhanced. This research highlights the value of integrating real-time data with machine learning through a digital twin framework, offering a promising direction for climate-resilient agriculture and space-based plant growth systems.