A web interface to databases associated with a plant growth simulator

A web interface was developed for scientists, teachers and students to access plant, weather and soil databases used for plant growth simulation studies. The interface is coded as a Java applet with a graphical user interface (GUI) whereas the databases are managed by Microsoft Access. The Java applet obtains input data from the databases, and then directly runs a plant growth simulator programmed in Java. With a Java (JDK1.1)-embedded web browser running under Windows 95/98/NT, UNIX, or other operating system, users can link to the run-time Java applet from our website. For plant growth simulation studies, users can choose a target plant species and different weather and soil conditions from menu choices built into the GUI, and then input agronomic data such as planting date, row spacing, etc. into the relevant text fields. The output is displayed in both graphical and text forms by clicking appropriately marked buttons for such state variables as phenological events, leaf area index (LAI), plant height, biomass, shoot/root ratio, photosynthesis, evapotranspiration, etc. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.