Exploring the possibilities of parsimonious nitrogen modelling in different ecosystems

[EN] Nitrogen is a fundamental component of living organisms, but it is also in short supply in forms in which vegetation can assimilate. As a result, nitrogen is a limiting element for vegetation growth. However, as a consequence of the human-mediated introduction of mineral nitrogen, nitrogen is also a major pollutant in anthropogenic ecosystems. Both natural and anthropogenic ecosystems supply important goods and services for the human wellbeing and in order to maintain the human living standards, there is a necessity of preserving natural ecosystems over time on one side, while improving the sustainability of anthropogenic ecosystems on the other. In that sense, mathematical models including the nitrogen cycle are useful tools which allow the analysis of the relationships and behaviours of these ecosystems, and there is a clear need to continue to develop and test nitrogen models, principally, models with an integrated approach, capable to deal with the different characteristics and behaviours of natural and anthropogenic ecosystems. Hence, the aim of the present thesis is to improve the nitrogen cycle modelling, exploring different parsimonious modelling approaches within the plant-soil-water continuum in natural and anthropogenic semiarid ecosystems. To face this objective, two parsimonious nitrogen models have been developed and implemented in two different data availability scenarios. Firstly, a new parsimonious carbon and nitrogen model, TETIS-CN, is implemented in a semiarid natural forest ecosystem trying to contribute to a better understanding and modelling of the hydrological and biogeochemical (carbon and nitrogen) cycles and their interactions in semiarid conditions and to test its capability to satisfactorily reproduce them. The results are satisfactory and suggest that it is important to include carbon observations in the calibration process, to consider all the existing vegetation species in the simulation, and that a fixed daily potential uptake may not be appropriate to reproduce the plant nitrogen uptake process. Secondly, a new parsimonious nitrogen model, TETIS-N, is implemented in a semiarid anthropogenic agricultural ecosystem. Since agriculture is the major source of diffuse pollution, being nitrogen and sediment pollution of water bodies its main associated environmental impacts, this second approach aims to improve its sustainability by evaluating the impact of several management practices on nitrogen and sediment loads, and horticultural crop yields. As a result, each management practice resulted effective in reducing a certain type of diffuse pollution, and therefore, combined scenarios are necessary to cope with all agricultural pollution sources. This thesis proved that each ecosystem has different characteristics and behaviours and therefore, different modelling necessities. Consequently, current models should include an integrate modelling of both natural and anthropogenic ecosystems.[ES] El nitrógeno es un componente fundamental de los organismos vivos, pero también es escaso en las formas en que la vegetación puede asimilarlo, lo que lo convierte en un elemento limitante para el crecimiento de la vegetación. Sin embargo, debido a la introducción de nitrógeno mineral por el hombre, también se ha convertido en un contaminante importante en los ecosistemas. Tanto los ecosistemas naturales como los antrópicos, suministran bienes y servicios importantes y, para poder mantener los niveles de vida, es necesario preservar los ecosistemas naturales, por un lado, y mejorar la sostenibilidad de los ecosistemas antrópicos por otro. De esta forma, los modelos matemáticos que incluyen la modelización del ciclo de nitrógeno son herramientas útiles que permiten el análisis de las relaciones y los comportamientos de estos ecosistemas. Por lo que existe una clara necesidad de continuar desarrollando y probando nuevos modelos de nitrógeno, principalmente con un enfoque integrado, capaces de abordar las diferentes características y comportamientos de los ecosistemas naturales y antrópicos. De esta forma, el objetivo de esta tesis es mejorar la modelización del ciclo de nitrógeno, explorando diferentes enfoques de modelización parsimoniosa dentro del continuo planta-suelo-agua en ecosistemas semiáridos naturales y antrópicos. Para abordar este objetivo, se han desarrollado e implementado dos modelos de nitrógeno parsimoniosos en dos escenarios diferentes En primer lugar, se ha desarrollado e implementado un nuevo modelo parsimonioso de carbono y nitrógeno, TETIS-CN, en un ecosistema de bosque natural semiárido. Este primer enfoque intenta contribuir a una mejor comprensión y modelización de los ciclos hidrológico y biogeoquímicos (carbono y nitrógeno) y de sus interacciones en condiciones semiáridas. Así mismo, se comprueba la capacidad del modelo propuesto para reproducirlos satisfactoriamente. Los resultados son satisfactorios y sugieren que es importante incluir observaciones de carbono en el proceso de calibración, considerar todas las especies de vegetación existentes en la simulación, y que una absorción potencial diaria fija puede no ser apropiada para reproducir el proceso de absorción de nitrógeno por parte de la vegetación. En segundo lugar, se ha desarrollado e implementado un nuevo modelo de nitrógeno parsimonioso, TETIS-N, en un ecosistema agrícola antrópico semiárido. Dado que la agricultura es la principal fuente de contaminación difusa, siendo la contaminación por nitrógeno y sedimentos de las masas de agua, su principal impacto ambiental, este segundo enfoque tiene como objetivo evaluar el impacto de varias prácticas de gestión en las descargas de nitrógeno y sedimentos, así como en la producción de los cultivos hortícolas. Como resultado, cada práctica de gestión resulta efectiva en la reducción de cierto tipo de contaminación difusa y, por lo tanto, se necesitan escenarios combinados para hacer frente a todas las fuentes de contaminación agrícola. Esta tesis ha demostrado que cada ecosistema tiene diferentes características y comportamientos y, por lo tanto, diferentes necesidades de modelización, por lo que los modelos actuales deben incluir una modelización integrada de los ecosistemas naturales y antrópicos.[CA] El nitrogen és un component fonamental dels organismes vius, però també és escàs en les formes en què la vegetació pot assimilar-ho, convertint-lo en un element limitant per al creixement de la vegetació. No obstant, a causa de la introducció de nitrogen mineral per l'home, també s'ha convertit en un contaminant important als ecosistemes. Tant els ecosistemes naturals com els antròpics, subministren béns i serveis importants i, per a poder mantenir els nivells de vida, és necessari preservar els ecosistemes naturals, d'una banda, i millorar la sostenibilitat dels ecosistemes antròpics per altra. D'aquesta forma, els models matemàtics que inclouen la modelització del cicle del nitrogen són eines útils que permeten l'anàlisi de les relacions i els comportaments d'aquests ecosistemes. Per tant, existeix una clara necessitat de continuar desenvolupant i provant nous models de nitrogen, principalment amb un enfocament integrat, capaços d'abordar les diferents característiques i comportaments dels ecosistemes naturals i antròpics. D'aquesta forma, l'objectiu d'aquesta tesi és millorar la modelització del cicle del nitrogen, explorant diferents enfocaments de modelització parsimoniosa dins del continu planta-sòl-aigua en ecosistemes semiàrids naturals i antròpics. Per a abordar aquest objectiu, s'han desenvolupat i implementat dos models de nitrogen parsimoniosos en dos escenaris diferents. En primer lloc, s'ha desenvolupat i implementat un nou model parsimoniós de carboni i nitrogen, TETIS-CN, en un ecosistema de bosc natural semiàrid. Aquest primer enfocament intenta contribuir a una millor comprensió i modelització dels cicles hidrològic i biogeoquímics (carboni i nitrogen) i de les seues interaccions en condicions semiàrides. Així mateix, comprova la capacitat del model proposat per a reproduir-los satisfactòriament. Els resultats són satisfactoris i suggereixen que és important incloure observacions de carboni en el procés de calibratge, considerar totes les espècies de vegetació existents en la simulació, i que una absorció potencial diària fixa pugues no ser apropiada per a reproduir el procés d'absorció de nitrogen per part de la vegetació. En segon lloc, s'ha desenvolupat i implementat un nou model de nitrogen parsimoniós, TETIS-N, en un ecosistema agrícola antròpic semiàrid. Atès que l'agricultura és la principal font de contaminació difusa, sent la contaminació per nitrogen i sediments de les masses d'aigua, el seu principal impacte ambiental, aquest segon enfocament té com a objectiu avaluar l'impacte de diverses pràctiques de gestió en les descàrregues de nitrogen i sediments, així com en la producció dels cultius hortícoles. Com a resultat, cada pràctica de gestió resulta efectiva en la reducció de cert tipus de contaminació difusa i, per tant, es necessiten escenaris combinats per a fer front a totes les fonts de contaminació agrícola. Aquesta tesi ha demostrat que cada ecosistema té diferents característiques i comportaments i, per tant, diferents necessitats de modelització, per tant, els models actuals han d'incloure una modelització integrada dels ecosistemes naturals i antròpics.Esta tesis doctoral no habría sido posible sin la financiación proporcionada por el Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación a través del proyecto TETISMED (CGL2014-58127-C3-3-R) y la Unión Europea a través del proyecto LIFE17 CCA/ES/000063 RESILIENTFORESTS.Puertes Castellano, C. (2020). Exploring the possibilities of parsimonious nitrogen modelling in different ecosystems [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/138141TESI

La riada de Valencia de 1957: reconstrucción hidrológica y sedimentológica y análisis comparativo con la situación actual

Puertes-Castellano, C.; Francés, F. (2015). La riada de Valencia de 1957: reconstrucción hidrológica y sedimentológica y análisis comparativo con la situación actual. Universidad de Córdoba. 1-10. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/142693S11

Assessment of remotely sensed near-surface soil moisture for distributed eco-hydrological model implementation

The aim of this study was to implement an eco-hydrological distributed model using only remotely sensed information (soil moisture and leaf area index) during the calibration phase. Four soil moisture-based metrics were assessed, and the best alternative was chosen, which was a metric based on the similarity between the principal components that explained at least 95% of the soil moisture variation and the Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) index between simulated and observed surface soil moisture. The selected alternative was compared with a streamflow-based calibration approach. The results showed that the streamflow-based calibration approach, even presenting satisfactory results in the calibration period (NSE = 0.91), performed poorly in the validation period (NSE = 0.47) and Leaf Area Index (LAI) and soil moisture were neither sensitive to the spatio-temporal pattern nor to the spatial correlation in both calibration and validation periods. Hence, the selected soil moisture-based approach showed an acceptable performance in terms of discharges, presenting a negligible decrease in the validation period (ΔNSE = 0.1) and greater sensitivity to the spatio-temporal variables’ spatial representation

Explaining the hydrological behaviour of facultative phreatophytes using a multi-variable and multi-objective modelling approach

[EN] Trees in semiarid conditions survive despite water scarcity and shallow soils because they commonly have access to subsoil water resources. Currently, conventional models do not include groundwater transpiration and the results frequently underestimate the actual evapotranspiration and overestimate the net recharge. Therefore, in this work we focus on how a multi-variable calibration with a multi-objective approach may improve model robustness leading to a more realistic closure of the water balance in two models (LEACHM and TETIS) of different conceptualisation taking into account the specific characteristics of a facultative phreatophytic forest. The results suggest that the common single-variable and single-objective calibration is not able to measure all system¿s characteristics. However, the multi-variable and multi-objective calibration proved a good option to reproduce the water dynamics of a facultative phreatophytic forest and confirmed that groundwater transpiration is an important water source for them. Therefore, hydrological models should include this mechanism and both LEACHM and TETIS proved an acceptable tool to be applied in the regions covered by this species.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the research projects: TETISMED (CGL2014-58127-C3-3-R), SILWAMED (CGL2014-58127-C3-2-R) and TETISCHANGE (RTI2018-093717-B-100), and by the project LIFE17 CCA/ES/000063 RESILIENTFORESTS.Puertes-Castellano, C.; Lidón, A.; Echeverria, C.; Bautista, I.; González Sanchis, MDC.; Campo García, ADD.; Francés, F. (2019). Explaining the hydrological behaviour of facultative phreatophytes using a multi-variable and multi-objective modelling approach. Journal of Hydrology. 575:395-407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.05.041S39540757

Hydrological Modeling of the Effect of the Transition From Flood to Drip Irrigation on Groundwater Recharge Using Multi-Objective Calibration

[EN] The replacement of flood-irrigation systems by drip-irrigation technology has been widely promoted with the aim of a more sustainable use of freshwater resources in irrigated agriculture. However, evidence for an irrigation efficiency paradox emphasizes the need to improve our understanding of the impacts of irrigation transformations on water resources. Here, we developed a distributed hydrological modeling approach to investigate the spatiotemporal effect of flood and drip irrigation on groundwater recharge. The approach recognizes differences in the water balance resulting from the localized application of water in surface drip-irrigated fields and the more extensive application of water in flood irrigation. The approach was applied to the semi-arid Mediterranean region of Valencia (Spain) and calibrated using a multi-objective framework. Multiple process scales were addressed within the framework by considering the annual evaporative index, monthly groundwater level dynamics, and daily soil moisture dynamics. Daily simulations from 1994 to 2015 suggested that, in our hydroclimatic conditions, (a) annual recharge is strongly related to annual rainfall, which had a four times higher impact on recharge than the type of irrigation practice, (b) flood-irrigated recharge tends to exceed drip-irrigated recharge by 10% at annual time scales, (c) however, recharge response to a particular precipitation event is smaller in flood irrigation than in drip irrigation, and (d) 8¿18 rainfall events could generate more than half of the annual recharge in drip and flood irrigation, respectively. Our results highlight the importance of understanding the hydrological dynamics under different irrigation practices for supporting irrigation infrastructure policies.The authors thank the Coop Research Program on ¿Sustainability in Food Value Chains¿ of the ETH Zurich World Food System Center and the ETH Zurich Foundation for supporting this project. The Coop Research Program is supported by the Coop Sustainability Fund. The authors also acknowledge the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the research project TETISCHANGE (RTI2018-093717-B-100). This work was additionally supported by the ADAPTAMED research project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RTI2018-101483-B-I00) with European FEDER funds. The support of Andreas Scheidegger (Eawag) for statistical questions is also acknowledgedPool, S.; Francés, F.; Garcia-Prats, A.; Puertes, C.; Pulido-Velazquez, M.; Sanchis Ibor, C.; Schirmer, M.... (2021). Hydrological Modeling of the Effect of the Transition From Flood to Drip Irrigation on Groundwater Recharge Using Multi-Objective Calibration. Water Resources Research. 57(8):1-19. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR029677S11957

Impact of a transformation from flood to drip irrigation on groundwater recharge and nitrogen leaching under variable climatic conditions

[EN] The sustainability of agriculture in the Mediterranean climate is challenged by high irrigation water demands and nitrogen fertilizer losses to the environment, causing significant pressure on groundwater resources and groundwater dependent ecosystems. Advanced irrigation technologies and improved fertilizer management have been promoted as key solutions to reduce the agricultural impact on aquatic systems. However, it remains unclear how different irrigation-fertilizer practices perform on the long-term under a highly variable climate, such as the Mediterranean one. Here, we conduct hydrological simulations over a fifty-year period to quantify the magnitude and dynamics of groundwater recharge and nitrogen leaching under five real-case irrigation-fertilizer practices observed in Valencia (eastern Spain). The Valencian Region is the largest citrus-producing region of Europe and current irrigation fertilizer practices reflect the ongoing transformation of irrigation systems from flood to drip irrigation. Our simulations highlight three major implications of the irrigation transformation for groundwater resources. First, the transformation from flood to drip irrigation reduces the recharge fraction (19% vs. 16%) and especially the nitrogen leaching fraction (33%vs. 18%) on the long term. Second, the long-term performance of the two irrigation practices is subject to substantial inter-annual differences controlled by precipitation variability. The sensitivity of recharge and nitrogen leaching to annual meteorological conditions is stronger in drip irrigation, which eventually leads to a similar performance of flood and drip irrigation in wet years if fertilizer inputs are similar. Third, we identify a pronounced year-to-year nitrogen memory in the soil, whereby an enhanced (decreased) nitrogen leaching is observed after anomalously dry (wet) years, affecting the performance of irrigation-fertilizer practices. Overall, the study demonstrates the highly variable nature of the performance of irrigation-fertilizer practices, and the major findings can guide future efforts in designing sustainable water management strategies for agricultural areas with a Mediterranean climate.The authors thank the Coop Research Program on Sustainability in Food Value Chains of the ETH Zurich World Food System Center and the ETH Zurich Foundation for supporting this project. The Coop Research Program is supported by the Coop Sustainability Fund. The authors also acknowledge the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the research project TETISCHANGE (RTI2018-093717-B-100). This work was additionally supported by the ADAPTAMED (RTI2018-101483-BI00) research project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation with European FEDER funds. The authors further thank AEMET and UC for the data provided for this work (Spain02 v5 dataset, available at http://www.meteo.unican.es/datasets/spain02).Pool, S.; Francés, F.; Garcia-Prats, A.; Puertes, C.; Pulido-Velazquez, M.; Sanchis Ibor, C.; Schirmer, M.... (2022). Impact of a transformation from flood to drip irrigation on groundwater recharge and nitrogen leaching under variable climatic conditions. Science of The Total Environment. 825:1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153805S11182

Orientaciones para la planificación de la cooperacion para el desarrollo en entidades locales de la Comunidad Valenciana

El documento consiste en una guia de orientación para las acciones de diseño y planificación de la cooperación para el desarrollo en el ámbito de la Comunitat Valencina

Improving the modelling and understanding of carbon-nitrogen-water interactions in a semiarid Mediterranean oak forest

[EN] Mediterranean drylands are often nutrient poor, but parameter requirements of forest ecosystem models are usually high. Therefore, there is a need for developing parsimonious nutrients models. In that sense, this study aims to contribute to a better understanding and modelling of the hydrological and biogeochemical (carbon and nitrogen) cycles and their interactions in semiarid conditions and to test the capability of a new parsimonious model to satisfactorily reproduce them. The proposed model (TETIS-CN) and two additional widely used models were implemented in a Quercus ilex forest, and no noteworthy differences were found. Results suggest that: (1) it is important to include carbon observations in the calibration process and to consider all the existing vegetation species in the simulation; (2) a fixed daily potential uptake may not be appropriate to reproduce plant nitrogen uptake; and (3) TETIS-CN, with a lower number of parameters, proved an acceptable tool.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the research projects: TETISMED (CGL2014-58127-C3-3-R), SILWAMED (CGL2014-58127-C3-2-R), CEHYRFO-MED (CGL2017-86839-C3-2-R) and TETISCHANGE (RTI2018-093717-B100), and by the project LIFE17CCA/ES/000063 RESILIENTFORESTS.Puertes-Castellano, C.; González-Sanchis, MDC.; Lidón, A.; Bautista, I.; Del Campo García, AD.; Lull, C.; Francés, F. (2020). Improving the modelling and understanding of carbon-nitrogen-water interactions in a semiarid Mediterranean oak forest. Ecological Modelling. 420:1-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2020.108976S11842