ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Crop and Product Physiology
This article is part of the Research TopicModelling Environmental and Crop Production Systems: Evaluating Impacts of Abiotic Stress on Crop Growth and Resource Use EfficiencyView all 3 articles
Morphological analysis-based yield modeling in greenhouse grown cherry tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) under prolonged heat stress
Provisionally accepted
- 1Dankook University - Cheonan Campus, Cheonan-si, Republic of Korea
- 2Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Temple, United States
- 3Dongguk University Seoul, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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In South Korea, cherry tomato (Solanum lycioersucum) is a major greenhouse vegetable crop. However, climate change has steadily raised Earth's average temperature, posing a serious challenge for greenhouse agriculture. Elevated temperatures can trigger heat stress in greenhouse crops, leading to considerable yield losses. This study developed a greenhouse tomato growth model for two cherry tomato accessions, HR17 and HR24, cultivated under heat stress conditions during growing periods. Climate projections based on polynomial regression were incorporated into the plant growth model to assess climate change impacts on tomato yields. The two tomato accessions demonstrate distinct growth characteristics: HR24 allocates more biomass relative to fruit yield (Harvest index:0.48), whereas HR17 shows greater fruit production than biomass accumulation (Harvest index:0.65). Their yield responses also vary under future climate scenarios highlighted by temperature increases of 1-8 °C and extended hot seasons compared to historical records. HR24 appears more resilient to heat stress than HR17. Under Climate Change scenarios (SSP245 and SSP585 pathways), HR17 will decrease its fruit yield by around 1.2 Dry Ma/ha, while HR24 yields will be increased by round 1.3 Dry Mg/ha. This increased tolerance in HR24 may be attributable to its ability to sustain photosynthetic activity through higher production of biomass organs such as leaves and stems. These findings form a foundation for developing greenhouse crop models in future research and supporting farmers by providing more reliable yield forecasts.
Keywords: APEX, Cherry tomato, Heat stress, priming, Greenhouse climate model
Received: 23 Oct 2025; Accepted: 26 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kim, Jeong and Kim. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sojung Kim
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