 Improved descriptions of soil hydrology in crop models: The elephant in the room?Nicholas Jarvis, Mats Larsbo, Elisabet Lewan and Sarah Garré Agricultural Systems, 2022, vol. 202, issue C Abstract: Soil-crop simulation models are widely used to assess the impacts of soil management and climate change on soil water balance, solute transport and crop production. In this context, it is important that hydrological processes in the soil-crop system are accurately modelled. We suggest here that empirical treatments of soil water flow, water uptake by plant roots and transpiration limit the applicability of crop models and increase prediction errors. We further argue that this empiricism is to a large extent unnecessary, as parsimonious physics-based descriptions of these water flow processes in the soil-crop system are now available. Recent reviews and opinion articles, whilst strongly advocating the need for improvements to crop models, fail to mention the significant role played by accurate treatments of soil hydrology. It seems to us that empirical models of soil water flow have become the elephant in the room. Keywords: Crop model; Soil water flow; Root water uptake; Parameter uncertainty; Model parsimony (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agisys:v:202:y:2022:i:c:s0308521x22001135 DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2022.103477 Access Statistics for this article Agricultural Systems is currently edited by J.W. Hansen, P.K. Thornton and P.B.M. Berentsen More articles in Agricultural Systems from Elsevier |
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