Understanding biopore-induced drought resilience in spring wheat using 3-Dimensional root growth simulation with an approximate biopore network.
Abstract
Due to climate change, the weather in Europe is characterized by frequent dry spells in summer. The sustainable production of crops such as spring wheat therefore require appropriate strategies for drought resilience. One of such strategies is adopting agronomical procedures that encourage the formation of biopores in the subsoil. It is hypothesized that biopores can confer drought resilience by enabling plant roots to access subsoil moisture and nutrients which are deficient in the topsoil during droughts. Despite their presence in the soils of most cropping systems, biopores are seldom considered in crop models. In this study we coupled a 3-Dimensional root system architecture model to a 1-Dimensional field scale crop model and investigated the effect of biopores on the simulated root growth, above ground biomass and grain yield of rain-fed spring wheat in Germany using two scenarios. In the first scenario, a biopore network is considered while in the second scenario no biopore network is considered in the soil. We assumed that biopores are relics of a pre-crop root system and we generated biopore networks that match with measured biopore densities. Our results provide a clear understanding of biopore-induced drought resilience, as simulations of root length density, aboveground biomass and grain yield from scenario 1 compared well with the observations while scenario 2 showed a remarkable underestimate of the above ground biomass (20% less) and grain yield (27.5 % less) due to the dry spells that occurred during the cropping season. We conclude that 3-Dimensional root growth modelling with explicit representation of biopores is necessary for improved simulation of the impact of drought on Agriculture.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMGC41D1497M
- Keywords:
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- 3305 Climate change and variability;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 0402 Agricultural systems;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 1630 Impacts of global change;
- GLOBAL CHANGEDE: 1631 Land/atmosphere interactions;
- GLOBAL CHANGE