Assessment of the AquaCrop Model for Use in Simulation of Irrigated Winter Wheat Canopy Cover, Biomass, and Grain Yield in the North China Plain

Xiu-liang Jin,Xin-kai Zhu,Zhen-hai Li,Xiao-yu Song,Sen-nan Song,Gui-jun Yang,Wen-shan Guo,Xin-gang Xu,Hai-kuan Feng,Dafeng Hui

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0086938

Abstract

Improving winter wheat water use efficiency in the North China Plain (NCP), China is essential in light of current irrigation water shortages. In this study, the AquaCrop model was used to calibrate, and validate winter wheat crop performance under various planting dates and irrigation application rates. All experiments were conducted at the Xiaotangshan experimental site in Beijing, China, during seasons of 2008/2009, 2009/2010, 2010/2011 and 2011/2012. This model was first calibrated using data from 2008/2009 and 2009/2010, and subsequently validated using data from 2010/2011 and 2011/2012. The results showed that the simulated canopy cover (CC), biomass yield (BY) and grain yield (GY) were consistent with the measured CC, BY and GY, with corresponding coefficients of determination (R2) of 0.93, 0.91 and 0.93, respectively. In addition, relationships between BY, GY and transpiration (T), (R2 = 0.57 and 0.71, respectively) was observed. These results suggest that frequent irrigation with a small amount of water significantly improved BY and GY. Collectively, these results indicate that the AquaCrop model can be used in the evaluation of various winter wheat irrigation strategies. The AquaCrop model predicted winter wheat CC, BY and GY with acceptable accuracy. Therefore, we concluded that AquaCrop is a useful decision-making tool for use in efforts to optimize wheat winter planting dates, and irrigation strategies.

Highlights

Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is an important staple food crop for the majority of the North China Plain (NCP) population [1]
The calibrated results were consistent with the validated results for canopy cover (CC), biomass yield (BY) and grain yield (GY) (Tables 5 and 6). These results suggest that the AquaCrop model is useful for simulating winter wheat CC, BY and GY under different planting dates, and irrigation strategies
The results indicate that the AquaCrop model can be used to simulate CC, BY and GY for winter wheat under different planting dates and irrigation strategies

Summary

Introduction

Winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is an important staple food crop for the majority of the North China Plain (NCP) population [1]. Various studies have described several such irrigation strategies for use by farmers [6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. Since the mid-1960s, the relationship between water and crop yield has been described with both empirical and mechanistic models [17,18,19,20]. Downey [22], via deficit irrigation studies, suggested that there exists a nonlinear relationship between water and yield. Wang and Sun [26] showed that a Winter wheat cultivars

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Methods

Discussion

Conclusion