Long-term DSSAT simulation of nitrogen loss to artificial subsurface drainage flow for a corn-soybean rotation with winter rye in Iowa

Amitava Chatterjee, Kelly R. Thorp, O’Brien, Peter L., John Kovar, Natalia Rogovska and Robert W. Malone

Agricultural Water Management, 2025, vol. 312, issue C

Abstract: Cereal rye (Secale cereale L.) as winter cover crop can reduce nitrate (NO3) loss through subsurface tile drainage under corn (Zea mays L.) -soybean (Glycine max L.) production system. The Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) model can simulate processes of subsurface drainage flow and NO3 loss to artificial subsurface drainage, but few model evaluations with field-measured data are available. The objective of this study was to evaluate the DSSAT model for simulating crop yield and flow and NO3 losses to tile drainage in a corn -soybean rotation with (CC) and without (NCC) winter rye cover crop in Central Iowa during the 2002–2010 growing seasons. Simulations successfully reproduced the cumulative (9 years) subsurface drainage flow, observed and predicted values were 331 cm and 309 cm for NCC and, 323 cm and 284 cm for CC. Similarly, for cumulative NO3 loss in tile flow, observed and predicted values were 444 kg N ha−1 and 459 kg N ha−1 for NCC and 187 kg N ha−1 and 196 kg N ha−1 for CC; simulated and observed indicated CC treatment could reduce NO3 in drainage by 57 %. Early (-10 d) and late (+ 10 d) termination did not influence main crop yield and tile NO3 loss. Simulation of the long-term (23-years) influence of CC suggest that tile flow and NO3 load could be reduced by 15 % and 73 %, respectively for a corn-soybean production system in central Iowa.

Keywords: Cover crop termination time; Nitrate leaching; Water balance; Rainfed agriculture; Tile flow (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377425001787
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:312:y:2025:i:c:s0378377425001787

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109464

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().