Modelling nutrient acquisition by crops with specific consideration of biopores
Final Report Abstract
In this project we showed that accurate modelling of nutrient uptake by crops in the presence of biopores requires a structural and functional approach where properties of the root system architecture (RSA) of the crop like branching intervals and elongation rates of secondary roots are considered, biopores are explicitly defined and the behaviour of the roots within the biopore is properly modelled. We showed that: 1. Using the classical tropism approaches to model root growth in biopores resulted in poor estimates of the RLD distribution of barley and we proposed an anisotropy approach, which gave reliable RLD distributions. 2. When the RSA of the crop is ignored (as done in classical 1D root growth models) wrong estimates of the RLD, water and nutrient uptake, were simulated and this resulted in wrong estimates of the grain yield and above ground biomass of water-stressed spring wheat. 3. With explicit consideration of the RSA and behavior of roots in biopores good estimates of the RLD, root water uptake and nutrient uptake of water-stressed spring wheat were obtained, and this resulted to good estimates of grain yield and above ground biomass.
Publications
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A new model for root growth in soil with macropores. Plant and Soil, Vol. 415. 2017, Issue 1–2, pp 99–116.
Landl, M., Huber, K., Schnepf, A., Vanderborght, J., Javaux, M., Bengough, A. G., Vereecken, H.
