Monga Olivier auteur aut IRD Bousso M. auteur aut IRD Garnier P. auteur aut IRD Pot V. auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access This study is the follow-up to a previous one devoted to soil pore space modelling. In the previous study, we proposed algorithms to represent soil pore space by means of optimal piecewise approximation using simple 3D geometrical primitives: balls, cylinders, cones, etc. In the present study, we use the ball-based piecewise approximation to simulate biological activity. The basic idea for modelling pore space consists in representing pore space using a minimal set of maximal balls (Delaunay spheres) recovering the shape skeleton. In this representation, each ball is considered as a maximal local cavity corresponding to the "intuitive" notion of a pore as described in the literature. The space segmentation induced by the network of balls (pores) is then used to spatialise biological dynamics. Organic matter and microbial decomposers are distributed within the balls (pores). A valuated graph representing the pore network, organic matter and microorganism distribution is then defined. Microbial soil organic matter decomposition is simulated by updating this valuated graph. The method has been implemented and tested on real data. As far as we know, this approach is the first one to formally link pore space geometry and biological dynamics. The long-term goal is to define geometrical typologies of pore space shape that can be attached to specific biological dynamic properties. This paper is a first attempt to achieve this goal. specialized 3D computer vision Biological dynamics simulation Computed tomography Computational geometry Microbial decomposition Pore space modelling 068 074 020 35 9 1789-1801 2009 0098-3004 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010048213 10.1016/j.cageo.2009.02.007 0098-3004 [F B010048213] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010048213 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2009/10/010048213.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2009-11-09 2017-08-23 fdi:010048213 fre