Adaptability of APSIM Maize Model in Northeast China

Abstract

The APSIM (Agricultural Production Systems Simulator) model was introduced to simulate maize growth, development and yields in Northeast China using the field experimental data and climate data collected from six typical agricultural meteorological stations in the studied area. APSIM was calibrated using the first part of data to determine the varietal parameters, then simulated the growing periods, leaf area index (LAI), total above-ground biomass and yields using the second part of data at each site. The results showed that there was a good agreement between the simulated and measured values in growing periods. The difference of growing periods from sowing to emergence, from sowing to flowering and from sowing to maturity between simulated and measured data was 0–2.0, 0.7–2.0, and 0.7–2.3 d, respectively. The Normalized Root Mean Square Error (NRMSE) values for measured and simulated LAI and total above-ground biomass in Harbin station were 33% and 11%, respectively. NRMSE values for measured and simulated yield in Harbin, Hailun, Tailai, Huadian, Tonghua, and Benxi station were 18%, 13%, 4%, 4%, 5%, and 2%, respectively. These re-sults indicated that APSIM model has good ability to simulate the growing periods, dynamic process of LAI, dynamic process of above-ground biomass and yield of maize in Northeast China. This research supports the model application in Northeast China, such as simulating maize potential yield, or prescribing yield limiting factors.