Predictions of soil water and crop growth dynamics using the agroecosystem models Theseus and Opus.

摘要

The agroecosystem models Theseus and Opus were tested with data obtained from three agricultural experimental field plots on sandy soils without groundwater located at the moraine landscape in East Brandenburg, Germany. At each of these plots, a separate agricultural management practice was applied. Measurements of soil water contents, pressure heads, above-ground crop biomass, and crop yield from these three plots were compared with the corresponding simulation results of both models. The comparisons of simulated with measured outputs were analyzed using the modeling-efficiency index IA. According to these analyses, both models simulated adequately the time courses of volumetric soil water contents and above-ground crop biomass, but the time courses of pressure heads were predicted with a lower quality by both models. As for the pressure heads, the yields simulated with both models showed greater discrepancies in comparison with the observed ones. This indicates the need of a site-specific parameter calibration of the crop-growth modules, especially for that included in Opus.