TY  - JOUR
T1  - Crop rotation modelling—A European model intercomparison
JO  - European Journal of Agronomy
VL  - 70
IS  - 
SP  - 98
EP  - 111
PY  - 2015/10//
T2  - 
AU  - Kollas, Chris
AU  - Kersebaum, Kurt Christian
AU  - Nendel, Claas
AU  - Manevski, Kiril
AU  - Müller, Christoph
AU  - Palosuo, Taru
AU  - Armas-Herrera, Cecilia M.
AU  - Beaudoin, Nicolas
AU  - Bindi, Marco
AU  - Charfeddine, Monia
AU  - Conradt, Tobias
AU  - Constantin, Julie
AU  - Eitzinger, Josef
AU  - Ewert, Frank
AU  - Ferrise, Roberto
AU  - Gaiser, Thomas
AU  - Cortazar-Atauri, Iñaki Garcia de
AU  - Giglio, Luisa
AU  - Hlavinka, Petr
AU  - Hoffmann, Holger
AU  - Hoffmann, Munir P.
AU  - Launay, Marie
AU  - Manderscheid, Remy
AU  - Mary, Bruno
AU  - Mirschel, Wilfried
AU  - Moriondo, Marco
AU  - Olesen, Jørgen E.
AU  - Öztürk, Isik
AU  - Pacholski, Andreas
AU  - Ripoche-Wachter, Dominique
AU  - Roggero, Pier Paolo
AU  - Roncossek, Svenja
AU  - Rötter, Reimund P.
AU  - Ruget, Françoise
AU  - Sharif, Behzad
AU  - Trnka, Mirek
AU  - Ventrella, Domenico
AU  - Waha, Katharina
AU  - Wegehenkel, Martin
AU  - Weigel, Hans-Joachim
AU  - Wu, Lianhai
SN  - 1161-0301
DO  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2015.06.007
UR  - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1161030115300010
KW  - Model ensemble
KW  - Crop simulation models
KW  - Catch crop
KW  - Intermediate crop
KW  - Treatment
KW  - Multi-year
AB  - Abstract
Diversification of crop rotations is considered an option to increase the resilience of European crop production under climate change. So far, however, many crop simulation studies have focused on predicting single crops in separate one-year simulations. Here, we compared the capability of fifteen crop growth simulation models to predict yields in crop rotations at five sites across Europe under minimal calibration. Crop rotations encompassed 301 seasons of ten crop types common to European agriculture and a diverse set of treatments (irrigation, fertilisation, CO2 concentration, soil types, tillage, residues, intermediate or catch crops).

We found that the continuous simulation of multi-year crop rotations yielded results of slightly higher quality compared to the simulation of single years and single crops. Intermediate crops (oilseed radish and grass vegetation) were simulated less accurately than main crops (cereals). The majority of models performed better for the treatments of increased CO2 and nitrogen fertilisation than for irrigation and soil-related treatments. The yield simulation of the multi-model ensemble reduced the error compared to single-model simulations.

The low degree of superiority of continuous simulations over single year simulation was caused by (a) insufficiently parameterised crops, which affect the performance of the following crop, and (b) the lack of growth-limiting water and/or nitrogen in the crop rotations under investigation. In order to achieve a sound representation of crop rotations, further research is required to synthesise existing knowledge of the physiology of intermediate crops and of carry-over effects from the preceding to the following crop, and to implement/improve the modelling of processes that condition these effects.
ER  -