Open AccessInfluence of Soil Properties in Different Management Systems: Estimating Soybean Water Changes in the Agro-IBIS Model
Author(s) -
Virnei Silva Moreira,
Luiz Antônio Cândido,
Débora Regina Roberti,
Geovane Webler,
Marcelo Bortoluzzi Diaz,
L. Goncalves,
Raphael Pousa,
Gervásio Annes Degrazia
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
earth interactions
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.309
H-Index - 38
ISSN - 1087-3562
DOI - 10.1175/ei-d-16-0033.1
Subject(s) - ibis , tillage , environmental science , evapotranspiration , water balance , soil management , hydrology (agriculture) , soil science , soil water , agronomy , ecology , engineering , geotechnical engineering , biology
The water balance in agricultural cropping systems is dependent on the physical and hydraulic characteristics of the soil and the type of farming, both of which are sensitive to the soil management. Most models that describe the interaction between the surface and the atmosphere do not efficiently represent the physical differences across different soil management areas. In this study, the authors analyzed the dynamics of the water exchange in the agricultural version of the Integrated Biosphere Simulator (IBIS) model (Agro-IBIS) in the presence of different physical soil properties because of the different long-term soil management systems. The experimental soil properties were obtained from two management systems, no tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (CT) in a long-term experiment in southern Brazil in the soybean growing season of 2009/10. To simulate NT management, this study modified the top soil layer in the model to represent the residual layer. Moreover, a mathematical adjustment to the computation of leaf area index (LAI) is suggested to obtain a better representation of the grain fill to the physiological maturity period. The water exchange dynamics simulated using Agro-IBIS were compared against experimental data collected from both tillage systems. The results show that the model well represented the water dynamics in the soil and the evapotranspiration (ET) in both management systems, in particular during the wet periods. Better results were found for the conventional tillage management system for the water balance. However, with the incorporation of a residual layer and soil properties in NT, the model improved the estimation of evapotranspiration by 6%. The ability of the Agro-IBIS model to estimate ET indicates its potential application in future climate scenarios.