IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecomod/v232y2012icp40-63.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Long-term dynamics of soil C and N in intensive rice-based cropping systems of the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP): A modelling approach

Author

Listed:
  • Shibu, M.E.
  • Van Keulen, H.
  • Leffelaar, P.A.

Abstract

We describe a summary model for the dynamics of carbon and nitrogen under varying weather, crop and soil conditions to investigate the role of soil organic carbon and nitrogen in yield formation in rice-based cropping systems of the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP). The model consists of three modules: soil organic matter (SOM), soil (SOIL), and crop growth (CROP). The SOM module consists of three pools: fresh, labile and stable. Carbon and nitrogen dynamics in the model are described in terms of carbon turnover, assimilation and dissimilation, with nitrogen linked through distinct C/N ratios. The SOIL module has two soil layers of variable depth (often 15cm each), and the labile and stable pools are replicated for these two layers. Water, crop and soil management practices and aeration characteristics of these layers affect the C and N dynamics of their respective pools. The CROP module calculates potential and actual biomass, leaf area index (LAI), evapotranspiration, total N demand, actual N uptake and N stress. Actual biomass is first partitioned between above (leaves, stem and storage organs) and below ground (roots and rhizodeposition), and a harvest index (HI) is applied to the aboveground biomass to calculate the yield. Independent data sets of 9 long-term experiments (LTEs) from the IGP of India were used for calibration and validation of the model. After calibration and validation, the model was used to explore the impact of various crop and soil management practices in rice-based cropping systems on different sites of the IGP. Overall, the model satisfactorily reproduced observed crop yields, SOC dynamics and total soil N dynamics for various cropping systems at different sites. Nitrogen mineralized from soil organic nitrogen contributed 5–75% to total N uptake in fertilized and non-fertilized treatments. With a recommended NPK application, a trend of significant decrease in simulated rice yield was found only at Ludhiana-3, and Pantnagar. Similarly, the simulated wheat yield also showed a significant trend of decline at Ludhina-3, Pantnagar and Barrackpore. Simulated SOC had a significant decline at Pantnagar, whereas at Ludhiana-3, it showed a significant increase. An increase in SOM is not always associated with an increase in yield, as the factor(s) improved by an increase in SOM may not be the limiting factor for crop growth. Depletion of many major macro (NPK) and micro (Zn, Fe, Mn, etc.) nutrients, essential for plant growth even with a balanced NPK fertilizer application and a maintained SOC, can lead to a decline in productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Shibu, M.E. & Van Keulen, H. & Leffelaar, P.A., 2012. "Long-term dynamics of soil C and N in intensive rice-based cropping systems of the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP): A modelling approach," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 40-63.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:232:y:2012:i:c:p:40-63
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2012.02.020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380012000968
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2012.02.020?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amarasinghe, Upali A. & Shah, Tushaar & Malik, R. P. S., 2009. "Strategic Analyses of the National River Linking Project (NRLP) of India, Series 1. India\u2019s water future: scenarios and issues," IWMI Books, Reports H042029, International Water Management Institute.
    2. Adam, M. & Van Bussel, L.G.J. & Leffelaar, P.A. & Van Keulen, H. & Ewert, F., 2011. "Effects of modelling detail on simulated potential crop yields under a wide range of climatic conditions," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(1), pages 131-143.
    3. Amarasinghe, Upali A. & Shah, Tushaar & Malik, R.P.S. (ed.), 2009. "Strategic Analyses of the National River Linking Project (NRLP) of India, Series 1. India’s water future: scenarios and issues," IWMI Books, International Water Management Institute, number 113261.
    4. Bouman, B.A.M. & van Laar, H.H., 2006. "Description and evaluation of the rice growth model ORYZA2000 under nitrogen-limited conditions," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 249-273, March.
    5. Amarasinghe, Upali A. & Singh, O. P., 2009. "Changing consumption patterns of India: implications on future food demand," IWMI Books, Reports H042036, International Water Management Institute.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amarasinghe, Upali A. & Xenarios, Stefanos, 2009. "Strategic Issues in Indian Irrigation: overview of the proceedings," IWMI Conference Proceedings 212440, International Water Management Institute.
    2. Giordano, Meredith & Turral, H. & Scheierling, S. M. & Treguer, D. O. & McCornick, Peter G, 2017. "Beyond “More Crop per Drop”: evolving thinking on agricultural water productivity," IWMI Research Reports 257962, International Water Management Institute.
    3. Chauhdary, Junaid Nawaz & Bakhsh, Allah & Engel, Bernard A. & Ragab, Ragab, 2019. "Improving corn production by adopting efficient fertigation practices: Experimental and modeling approach," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 449-461.
    4. Grotelüschen, Kristina & Gaydon, Donald S. & Langensiepen, Matthias & Ziegler, Susanne & Kwesiga, Julius & Senthilkumar, Kalimuthu & Whitbread, Anthony M. & Becker, Mathias, 2021. "Assessing the effects of management and hydro-edaphic conditions on rice in contrasting East African wetlands using experimental and modelling approaches," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    5. Boling, A.A. & Tuong, T.P. & van Keulen, H. & Bouman, B.A.M. & Suganda, H. & Spiertz, J.H.J., 2010. "Yield gap of rainfed rice in farmers' fields in Central Java, Indonesia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 103(5), pages 307-315, June.
    6. Yu, Qianan & Cui, Yuanlai, 2022. "Improvement and testing of ORYZA model water balance modules for alternate wetting and drying irrigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 271(C).
    7. Wang, Weiguang & Yu, Zhongbo & Zhang, Wei & Shao, Quanxi & Zhang, Yiwei & Luo, Yufeng & Jiao, Xiyun & Xu, Junzeng, 2014. "Responses of rice yield, irrigation water requirement and water use efficiency to climate change in China: Historical simulation and future projections," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 249-261.
    8. Cauchois, A., 2016. "Measuring the invisible: exploiting the water-energy nexus to estimate private, urban groundwater draft," Water Policy Research Highlights 311137, International Water Management Institute.
    9. Hochman, Zvi & Horan, Heidi & Reddy, D. Raji & Sreenivas, G. & Tallapragada, Chiranjeevi & Adusumilli, Ravindra & Gaydon, Donald S. & Laing, Alison & Kokic, Philip & Singh, Kamalesh K. & Roth, Christi, 2017. "Smallholder farmers managing climate risk in India: 2. Is it climate-smart?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 61-72.
    10. Belder, P. & Bouman, B. A.M. & Spiertz, J.H.J., 2007. "Exploring options for water savings in lowland rice using a modelling approach," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 92(1-3), pages 91-114, January.
    11. Pogson, Mark, 2011. "Modelling Miscanthus yields with low resolution input data," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(23), pages 3849-3853.
    12. Dzotsi, K.A. & Basso, B. & Jones, J.W., 2013. "Development, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of the simple SALUS crop model in DSSAT," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 260(C), pages 62-76.
    13. Dzotsi, K.A. & Basso, B. & Jones, J.W., 2015. "Parameter and uncertainty estimation for maize, peanut and cotton using the SALUS crop model," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 31-47.
    14. Jing, Qi & Keulen, Herman van & Hengsdijk, Huib, 2010. "Modeling biomass, nitrogen and water dynamics in rice-wheat rotations," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 103(7), pages 433-443, September.
    15. Bijon Kumer Mitra & Devesh Sharma & Xin Zhou & Rajarshi Dasgupta, 2021. "Assessment of the Impacts of Spatial Water Resource Variability on Energy Planning in the Ganges River Basin under Climate Change Scenarios," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-15, June.
    16. Naveen-Gupta, & Eberbach, P.L. & Humphreys, E. & Balwinder-Singh, & Sudhir-Yadav, & Kukal, S.S., 2019. "Estimating soil evaporation in dry seeded rice and wheat crops after wetting events," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 98-106.
    17. Feng, Liping & Bouman, B. A.M. & Tuong, T.P. & Cabangon, R.J. & Li, Yalong & Lu, Guoan & Feng, Yuehua, 2007. "Exploring options to grow rice using less water in northern China using a modelling approach: I. Field experiments and model evaluation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 88(1-3), pages 1-13, March.
    18. Jing, Qi & Bouman, Bas & van Keulen, Herman & Hengsdijk, Huib & Cao, Weixing & Dai, Tingbo, 2008. "Disentangling the effect of environmental factors on yield and nitrogen uptake of irrigated rice in Asia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 98(3), pages 177-188, October.
    19. Confalonieri, Roberto & Bregaglio, Simone & Acutis, Marco, 2016. "Quantifying uncertainty in crop model predictions due to the uncertainty in the observations used for calibration," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 328(C), pages 72-77.
    20. Sharma, Bharat R. & Rao, K.V. & Vittal, K.P.R. & Ramakrishna, Y.S. & Amarasinghe, U., 2010. "Estimating the potential of rainfed agriculture in India: Prospects for water productivity improvements," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 23-30, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:232:y:2012:i:c:p:40-63. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/ecological-modelling .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.