Abstract
The North Wyke Farm Platform (NWFP) generates large volumes of temporally-indexed data that provides a valuable test-bed for agricultural mathematical models in temperate grasslands. In our study, we used the primary datasets generated from the NWFP (https://nwfp.rothamsted.ac.uk/) to validate the SPACSYS model in terms of the dynamics of water loss and forage dry matter yield estimated through cutting. The SPACSYS model is capable of simulating soil water, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) balance in the soil-plant-atmosphere system. The validated model was then used to simulate the responses of soil water, C and N to reseeding grass cultivars with either high sugar (Lolium perenne L. cv. AberMagic) or deep rooting (Festulolium cv. Prior) traits. Simulation results demonstrated that the SPACSYS model could predict reliably soil water, C and N cycling in reseeded grassland. Compared to AberMagic, the Prior grass could fix more C in the second year following reseeding, whereas less C was lost through soil respiration in the first transition year. In comparison to the grass cultivar of the permanent pasture that existed before reseeding, both grasses reduced N losses through runoff and contributed to reducing water loss, especially Prior in relation to the latter. The SPACSYS model could predict these differences as supported by the rich dataset from the NWFP, providing a tool for future predictions on less characterized pasture.
Highlights
The cycling of water, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) have long been the three main components studied by ecosystem ecologists and global change scientists (Watanabe and Ortega, 2011)
Simulated cutting biomass from all fields selected over the simulation period was compared with measured data (Fig. 2)
Cutting forage dry matter from the first cutting following reseeding was excluded as it has been demonstrated that the SPACSYS model over-predicts the first cutting biomass after reseeding (Wu et al, 2016)
Summary
The cycling of water, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) have long been the three main components studied by ecosystem ecologists and global change scientists (Watanabe and Ortega, 2011). Grasslands have a high inherent soil organic matter (SOM) content that supplies nutrients to plants through decomposition and mineralisation, increases soil aggregation, limits soil erosion, and increases cation exchange and water holding capacities (Conant et al, 2001), which could come from the interactions between the roots of different plant species and the soil in which they grow (Marshall et al, 2016). In the UK, grassland management has changed substantially during the second half of the 20th century, one of which is that structurally diverse and species-rich swards have been largely replaced by relatively dense, fast-growing and uniform swards (Vickery et al, 2001). There might be a trend that intensive grasslands are being reversed back to multi species swards with a proportion of legumes
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