Documenting and modeling the accretion of surface and subsoil organic carbon in agricultural Inceptisols reclaimed from Mediterranean sea marshes in Sardinia

High input agriculture in productive Inceptisols that were reclaimed from sea marshes offers an opportunity to study the increase of soil organic carbon (SOC) in soils with originally low SOC. We documented the current SOC content and its distribution with depth for several soil profiles

Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics of Integrated Crop-Pasture Systems with Annual and Perennial Forages

Increased demand for food and bioenergy crops and the subsequent intensification of crop production creates a challenge for the conservation of natural resources in Latin America and the world. In Uruguay, no-till cash-crop production area has increased from 0.4 to 1.5 million ha in the last decade (DIEA 2011) mostly at the expense of pastureland through expanding grain production to soils with lower land use capability. Production systems based on crop-pasture rotations shifted to a longer annual cropping phase with a shorter pasture phase, or to continuous annual crop-ping. Long-term experiments in the country have shown that the rotation of annual crops and perennial pastures minimizes soil erosion in tilled systems, maintaining a positive long-term soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) balance that contrasts with C and N losses in annual cropping systems (García-Préchac et al. 2004). Research and extension on soil conservation in crop-pasture systems have led to a massive adoption of no-tillage practices, reaching about 90% of cash crop area by the 2009 growing season (DIEA 2011). However, the gradual increase in no-till adoption by farm operators has been associated with a dramatic increase in continuous annual cropping to the detriment of the pasture phase of the rotation. Our overarching question is: What is the impact of an increased frequency of annual crops in the C and N cycling of these systems? The objective of this study was to assess the impact of the pasture phase and cropping intensity on the soil C and N cycling of an Oxyaquic Argiudoll soil of eastern Uruguay using long term field experimental data and a cropping systems simulation model

USCID fifth international conference

Presented at the fifth international conference on irrigation and drainage, Irrigation and drainage for food, energy and the environment on November 3-6, 2009 in Salt Lake City, Utah.Includes bibliographical references.The urban water demand in Southwest Texas has grown rapidly in recent years due to large population increase. Regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) is one important measure for saving water while maintaining crop yield/ net benefit. An RDI field experiment was conducted at the Texas AgriLIFE Research and Extension Center at Uvalde in the summer of 2008 to examine the water saving potential. Seven irrigation schemes and four varieties were assigned to the experimental field to test their effects on lint yield. The results showed that: 1) The threshold of the replacement ratio is between 0.7 and 0.8 in fixed ratio irrigation schemes. Dynamic irrigation schemes showed a higher potential to save irrigation water. 2) The fiber quality was affected more by varieties than by irrigation schemes. A 50X (fixed 50% ratio) scheme has the potential risk to produce relatively lower quality cotton fiber by affecting fiber length and fiber yellowness. Considering its negative effect on lint yield as well, the 50X scheme is definitely not recommended. The two dynamic irrigation schemes, 50D and 70D, showed no negative effect on fiber quality. The 70D scheme has some potential to increase the fiber quality in fiber length, uniformity, fiber strength and reflectance; however, this scheme uses more irrigation water that the 50D scheme. Although further research is needed before making definitive conclusions, both dynamic schemes could be applied to maintain lint yield and fiber quality while saving more water, compared to the fixed ratio irrigation schemes

Soil application of high-lignin fermentation byproduct to increase the sustainability of liquid biofuel production from crop residues

Peer reviewe

An intelligent interface for integrating climate, hydrology, agriculture, and socioeconomic models

Understanding the interactions between natural processes and human activities poses major challenges as it requires the integration of models and data across disparate disciplines. It typically takes many months and even years to create valid end-to-end simulations as different models need to be configured in consistent ways and generate data that is usable by other models. MINT is a novel framework for model integration that captures extensive knowledge about models and data and aims to automatically compose them together. MINT guides a user to pose a well-formed modeling question, select and configure appropriate models, find and prepare appropriate datasets, compose data and models into end-to-end workflows, run the simulations, and visualize the results. MINT currently includes hydrology, agriculture, and socioeconomic models.Office of the VP for Researc

Dynamics of canopy development of Cunninghamia lanceolata mid-age plantation in relation to foliar nitrogen and soil quality influenced by stand density

It has been generally accepted that different silvicultural practices affect the forest canopy morphology and structure. During forest establishment, many natural sites were converted to coniferous plantations in southern China. Retention of the canopy during stand conversion may be desirable to promote ecological function and meet conservation objectives. We tested the impact of planting density, foliar nitrogen and soil chemical properties on the canopy development of Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) mid-age monoculture stands. Low density (1450 trees hm−2 with planting spacing of 2.36 × 2.36 m), intermediate-density (2460 trees hm−2 with planting spacing of 1.83 × 1.83 m) and high density (3950 trees hm−2 with planting spacing of 1.44 × 1.44 m) stands were selected in Xinkou forest plantations in Sanming City, China. Canopy characteristics such as leaf area index (LAI), mean tilt angle of the leaf (MTA) and average canopy openness index (DIFN) were measured. Measurements were taken using LAI-2200 PCA. The results illustrated that stand density was the primal factor responsible in canopy structuring while soil chemical properties seem to play a secondary role for canopy dynamics. LAI increased from 3.974 m2 m-2 to 5.072 m2 m-2 and MTA increases from 34.8° to 48.7° as the stand density increased while the DIFN decreased from 0.1542 to 0.0902 with the increasing stand density but it was no significantly different in intermediate and high-density stands. Additionally, LAI and MTA were positively correlated to foliar nitrogen while the DIFN was negatively correlated. In general, soil available nitrogen, available phosphorus and soil pH were not significant to canopy parameters. The results presented provide guiding principles about the canopy dynamics distribution in varying stand densities from LICOR measurements in mid-age Chinese fir monoculture. Furthermore, this provides a base to study canopy dynamics at mature stage forests because of more senescence activities.This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31870614 and 30970451), the Forestry Peak Discipline Project of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, China (71201800716) and Postdoctoral research funding of Central South University of Forestry and Technology (70702-45200003)

How Do Various Maize Crop Models Vary in Their Responses to Climate Change Factors?

Potential consequences of climate change on crop production can be studied using mechanistic crop simulation models. While a broad variety of maize simulation models exist, it is not known whether different models diverge on grain yield responses to changes in climatic factors, or whether they agree in their general trends related to phenology, growth, and yield. With the goal of analyzing the sensitivity of simulated yields to changes in temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations [CO2], we present the largest maize crop model intercomparison to date, including 23 different models. These models were evaluated for four locations representing a wide range of maize production conditions in the world: Lusignan (France), Ames (USA), Rio Verde (Brazil) and Morogoro (Tanzania). While individual models differed considerably in absolute yield simulation at the four sites, an ensemble of a minimum number of models was able to simulate absolute yields accurately at the four sites even with low data for calibration, thus suggesting that using an ensemble of models has merit. Temperature increase had strong negative influence on modeled yield response of roughly -0.5 Mg ha(sup 1) per degC. Doubling [CO2] from 360 to 720 lmol mol 1 increased grain yield by 7.5% on average across models and the sites. That would therefore make temperature the main factor altering maize yields at the end of this century. Furthermore, there was a large uncertainty in the yield response to [CO2] among models. Model responses to temperature and [CO2] did not differ whether models were simulated with low calibration information or, simulated with high level of calibration information

How do various maize crop models vary in their responses to climate change factors?

Potential consequences of climate change on crop production can be studied using mechanistic crop simulation models. While a broad variety of maize simulation models exist, it is not known whether different models diverge on grain yield responses to changes in climatic factors, or whether they agree in their general trends related to phenology, growth, and yield. With the goal of analyzing the sensitivity of simulated yields to changes in temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations [CO2], we present the largest maize crop model intercomparison to date, including 23 different models. These models were evaluated for four locations representing a wide range of maize production conditions in the world: Lusignan (France), Ames (USA), Rio Verde (Brazil) and Morogoro (Tanzania). While individual models differed considerably in absolute yield simulation at the four sites, an ensemble of a minimum number of models was able to simulate absolute yields accurately at the four sites even with low data for calibration, thus suggesting that using an ensemble of models has merit. Temperature increase had strong negative influence on modeled yield response of roughly 0.5 Mg ha 1 per C. Doubling [CO2] from 360 to 720 lmol mol 1 increased grain yield by 7.5% on average across models and the sites. That would therefore make temperature the main factor altering maize yields at the end of this century. Furthermore, there was a large uncertainty in the yield response to [CO2] among models. Model responses to temperature and [CO2] did not differ whether models were simulated with low calibration information or, simulated with high level of calibration information

Benefits of increasing transpiration efficiency in wheat under elevated CO₂ for rainfed regions

Tausz, M ORCiD: 0000-0001-8205-8561Higher transpiration efficiency (TE) has been proposed as a mechanism to increase crop yields in dry environments where water availability usually limits yield. The application of a coupled radiation and TE simulation model shows wheat yield advantage of a high-TE cultivar (cv. Drysdale) over its almost identical low-TE parent line (Hartog), from about −7 to 558 kg/ha (mean 187 kg/ha) over the rainfed cropping region in Australia (221–1,351 mm annual rainfall), under the present-day climate. The smallest absolute yield response occurred in the more extreme drier and wetter areas of the wheat belt. However, under elevated CO2 conditions, the response of Drysdale was much greater overall, ranging from 51 to 886 kg/ha (mean 284 kg/ha) with the greatest response in the higher rainfall areas. Changes in simulated TE under elevated CO2 conditions are seen across Australia with notable increased areas of higher TE under a drier climate in Western Australia, Queensland and parts of New South Wales and Victoria. This improved efficiency is subtly deceptive, with highest yields not necessarily directly correlated with highest TE. Nevertheless, the advantage of Drysdale over Hartog is clear with the benefit of the trait advantage attributed to TE ranging from 102% to 118% (mean 109%). The potential annual cost-benefits of this increased genetic TE trait across the wheat growing areas of Australia (5 year average of area planted to wheat) totaled AUD 631 MIL (5-year average wheat price of AUD/260 t) with an average of 187 kg/ha under the present climate. The benefit to an individual farmer will depend on location but elevated CO2 raises this nation-wide benefit to AUD 796 MIL in a 2°C warmer climate, slightly lower (AUD 715 MIL) if rainfall is also reduced by 20%. © 2018 The Authors. Global Change Biology Published by John Wiley & Sons Lt