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Agronomy
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Innovative Crop Model Development and Applications in Agro-Meteorology
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Innovative Crop Model Development and Applications in Agro-Meteorology

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Farming Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 November 2020) | Viewed by 16931

Special Issue Editors

Dr. James R. Kiniry

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS, 808 East Blackland Rd, Temple, TX 76502, USA
Interests: crop simulation modeling; biofuel production; cropping systems; agro-meteorology
Dr. Sumin Kim

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS, 808 East Blackland Rd, Temple, TX 76502, USA
Interests: biofuel energy crop; cytology; process based simulating model
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Process-based crop models have traditionally been developed and applied to annual grain crops. They contain soil description, a water balance to simulate drought and flooding, and nutrient balance subroutines to simulate nutrient demand and stress. With all of these normal components affecting plant growth, a natural extension has been the application of these models to other plant systems. These have included forests, bioenergy plant systems, grassland systems, wetland systems, and even vegetable crop production. This Special Issue will be dedicated to summarizing recent applications of crop models to these other plant systems. It will also include papers describing recent improvements in some commonly used crop models as they simulate annual cropping systems.

Dr. James R. Kiniry
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • crop models
  • soil
  • water balance
  • nutrient balance
  • plant growth
  • cropping systems
  • agro-meteorology

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 2082 KiB  
Article
Crop Modeling Application to Improve Irrigation Efficiency in Year-Round Vegetable Production in the Texas Winter Garden Region
by Sumin Kim, Manyowa N. Meki, Sojung Kim and James R. Kiniry
Agronomy 2020, 10(10), 1525; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10101525 - 7 Oct 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2151
Abstract
Given a rising demand for quality assurance, rather than solely yield, supplemental irrigation plays an important role to ensure the viability and profitability of vegetable crops from unpredictable changes in weather. However, under drought conditions, agricultural irrigation is often given low priority for [...] Read more.
Given a rising demand for quality assurance, rather than solely yield, supplemental irrigation plays an important role to ensure the viability and profitability of vegetable crops from unpredictable changes in weather. However, under drought conditions, agricultural irrigation is often given low priority for water allocation. This reduced water availability for agriculture calls for techniques with greater irrigation efficiency, that do not compromise crop quality and yield, and that provide economic benefit for producers. This study developed vegetable growing models for eight different vegetable crops (bush bean, green bean, cabbage, peppermint, spearmint, yellow straight neck squash, zucchini, and bell pepper) based on data from several years of field research. The ALMANAC model accurately simulated yields and water use efficiency (WUE) of all eight vegetables. The developed vegetable models were used to evaluate the effects of various irrigation regimes on vegetable growth and production in several locations in the Winter Garden Region of Texas, under variable weather conditions. Based on our simulation results from 960 scenarios, optimal irrigation amounts that produce high yield as well as reasonable economic profit to producers were determined for each vegetable crop. Overall, yields for all vegetables increased as irrigation amounts increased. However, irrigation amounts did not have a sustainable impact on vegetable yield at high irrigation treatments, and the WUEs of most vegetables were not significantly different among various irrigation regimes. When vegetable yields were compared with water cost, the rate decreased as irrigation amounts increased. Thus, producers will not receive economic benefits when vegetable irrigation water demand is too high. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Crop Model Development and Applications in Agro-Meteorology)
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13 pages, 1306 KiB  
Article
Modeling Climate Warming Impacts on Grain and Forage Sorghum Yields in Argentina
by Magdalena Druille, Amber S. Williams, Marcelo Torrecillas, Sumin Kim, Norman Meki and James R. Kiniry
Agronomy 2020, 10(7), 964; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10070964 - 4 Jul 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2838
Abstract
Sorghum is the world’s fifth major cereal in terms of production and acreage. It is expected that its growth will be affected by the increase in air temperature, an important component of global climate change. Our objective was to use the Agricultural Land [...] Read more.
Sorghum is the world’s fifth major cereal in terms of production and acreage. It is expected that its growth will be affected by the increase in air temperature, an important component of global climate change. Our objective was to use the Agricultural Land Management Alternatives with Numerical Assessment Criteria (ALMANAC) model to (a) evaluate the impact of climate warming on forage and grain sorghum production in Argentina and (b) to analyze to what extent yield changes were associated with changes in water or nitrogen stress days. For model calibration, we used previous information related to the morpho-physiological characteristics of both sorghum types and several soil parameters. We then used multiyear field data of sorghum yields for model validation. Yield simulations were conducted under three possible climate change scenarios: 1, 2, and 4 °C increase in mean annual temperature. ALMANAC successfully simulated mean yields of forage and grain sorghum: root mean square error (RMSE): 2.6 and 1.0 Mg ha−1, respectively. Forage yield increased 0.53 Mg ha−1, and grain yield decreased 0.27 Mg ha−1 for each degree of increase in mean annual temperature. Yields of forage sorghum tended to be negatively associated with nitrogen stress (r = −0.94), while grain sorghum yield was negatively associated with water stress (r = −0.99). The information generated allows anticipating future changes in crop management and genetic improvement programs in order to reduce the yield vulnerability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Crop Model Development and Applications in Agro-Meteorology)
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15 pages, 11336 KiB  
Article
Impacts of Spatial Zonation Schemes on Yield Potential Estimates at the Regional Scale
by Hao Xu, Fen Huang, Wenjun Zuo, Yongchao Tian, Yan Zhu, Weixing Cao and Xiaohu Zhang
Agronomy 2020, 10(5), 631; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10050631 - 30 Apr 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2087
Abstract
Simulations based on site-specific crop growth models have been widely used to obtain regional yield potential estimates for food security assessments at the regional scale. By dividing a region into nonoverlapping basic spatial units using appropriate zonation schemes, the data required to run [...] Read more.
Simulations based on site-specific crop growth models have been widely used to obtain regional yield potential estimates for food security assessments at the regional scale. By dividing a region into nonoverlapping basic spatial units using appropriate zonation schemes, the data required to run a crop growth model can be reduced, thereby improving the simulation efficiency. In this study, we explored the impacts of different zonation schemes on estimating the regional yield potential of the Chinese winter wheat area to obtain the most appropriate spatial zonation scheme of weather sites therein. Our simulated results suggest that the upscaled site-specific yield potential is affected by the zonation scheme and by the spatial distribution of sites. As such, the distribution of a small number of sites significantly affected the simulated regional yield potential under different zonation schemes, and the zonation scheme based on sunshine duration clustering zones could effectively guarantee the simulation accuracy at the regional scale. Using the most influential environmental variable of crop growth models for clustering can get the better zonation scheme to upscale the site-specific simulation results. In contrast, a large number of sites had little effect on the regional yield potential simulation results under the different zonation schemes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Crop Model Development and Applications in Agro-Meteorology)
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19 pages, 3044 KiB  
Article
Simulated Biomass, Climate Change Impacts, and Nitrogen Management to Achieve Switchgrass Biofuel Production at Diverse Sites in U.S.
by Sumin Kim, Sojung Kim, Jaepil Cho, Seonggyu Park, Fernando Xavier Jarrín Perez and James R. Kiniry
Agronomy 2020, 10(4), 503; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10040503 - 2 Apr 2020
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 2947
Abstract
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a C4, warm season, perennial native grass that has been strongly recommended as an ideal biofuel feedstock. Accurate forecasting of switchgrass yield across a geographically diverse region and under future climate conditions is essential for [...] Read more.
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a C4, warm season, perennial native grass that has been strongly recommended as an ideal biofuel feedstock. Accurate forecasting of switchgrass yield across a geographically diverse region and under future climate conditions is essential for determining realistic future ethanol production from switchgrass. This study compiled a switchgrass database through reviewing the existing literature from field trials across the U.S. Using observed switchgrass data, a process-based model (ALMANAC) was developed. The ALMANAC simulation results showed that crop management had more effect on yield than location. The ALMANAC model consists of functional relationships that provide a better understanding of interactions among plant physiological processes and environmental factors (water, soil, climate, and nutrients) giving realistic predictions in different climate conditions. This model was used to quantify the impacts of climate change on switchgrass yields. Simulated lowland switchgrass would have more yield increases between Illinois and Ohio in future (2021–2050) under both Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 pathways with low N fertilizer inputs than high N fertilizer inputs. There was no significant effect of climate variability on upland simulated yields, which means that N fertilization is a key factor in controlling upland switchgrass yields under future climate conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Crop Model Development and Applications in Agro-Meteorology)
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10 pages, 664 KiB  
Article
The Use of the WOFOST Model to Simulate Water-Limited Yield of Early Potato Cultivars
by Bogdan Kulig, Barbara Skowera, Agnieszka Klimek-Kopyra, Stanisław Kołodziej and Wiesław Grygierzec
Agronomy 2020, 10(1), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10010081 - 6 Jan 2020
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3101
Abstract
In this work, an attempt was made to use the WOFOST (WOrld FOod Studies) model to simulate the potential and water-limited yield of early potato cultivars Lord and Denar. Data from cultivar experiments carried out at the Polish Research Centre for Cultivar Testing [...] Read more.
In this work, an attempt was made to use the WOFOST (WOrld FOod Studies) model to simulate the potential and water-limited yield of early potato cultivars Lord and Denar. Data from cultivar experiments carried out at the Polish Research Centre for Cultivar Testing in 2004–2013 were used in the study. The Lord cultivar yielded 22.4–67.8 t fresh tuber weight per ha and 3.8–11.5 t ha−1 dry tuber weight during the study period. The highest tuber yields (over 10 t ha−1 dry weight) were obtained in 2009, 2011 and 2012, and the lowest in 2005 (3.8 t ha−1) and 2006 (2.65 t ha−1). The water-limited tuber yield simulated by WOFOST ranged from 3.6 to 10.9 t ha−1 dry weight and was about 0.45 t ha−1 higher on average than the actual yield. The planting period each year was between days 104 and 120 of the year, and harvesting took place between days 216 and 232. Water availability was a factor limiting the yield. The yield limited by water deficiency was 38.7% lower (irrespective of the cultivar) than the potential yield. The WOFOST model was sensitive to water deficiency, and the simulated (water-limited) yields were close to the actual yield or showed a clear downward trend indicating evident rainfall shortages in 2005 and 2006. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Crop Model Development and Applications in Agro-Meteorology)
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11 pages, 1430 KiB  
Article
Application of Artificial Neural Networks for Yield Modeling of Winter Rapeseed Based on Combined Quantitative and Qualitative Data
by Gniewko Niedbała, Magdalena Piekutowska, Jerzy Weres, Robert Korzeniewicz, Kamil Witaszek, Mariusz Adamski, Krzysztof Pilarski, Aneta Czechowska-Kosacka and Anna Krysztofiak-Kaniewska
Agronomy 2019, 9(12), 781; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy9120781 - 20 Nov 2019
Cited by 29 | Viewed by 3218
Abstract
Rapeseed is considered as one of the most important oilseed crops in the world. Vegetable oil obtained from rapeseed is a valuable raw material for the food and energy industry as well as for industrial applications. Compared to other vegetable oils, it has [...] Read more.
Rapeseed is considered as one of the most important oilseed crops in the world. Vegetable oil obtained from rapeseed is a valuable raw material for the food and energy industry as well as for industrial applications. Compared to other vegetable oils, it has a lower concentration of saturated fatty acids (5%–10%), a higher content of monounsaturated fatty acids (44%–75%), and a moderate content of alpha-linolenic acid (9%–13%). Overall, rapeseed is grown in all continents on an industrial scale, so there is a growing need to predict yield before harvest. A combination of quantitative and qualitative data were used in this work in order to build three independent prediction models, on the basis of which yield simulations were carried out. Empirical data collected during field tests carried out in 2008–2015 were used to build three models, QQWR15_4, QQWR31_5, and QQWR30_6. Each model was composed of a different number of independent variables, ranging from 21 to 27. The lowest MAPE (mean absolute percentage error) yield prediction error corresponded to QQWR31_5, it was 6.88%, and the coefficient of determination R2 was 0.69. As a result of the sensitivity analysis of the neural network, the most important independent variable influencing the final rapeseed yield was indicated, and for all the analyzed models it was “The kind of sowing date in the previous year” (KSD_PY). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Crop Model Development and Applications in Agro-Meteorology)
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