Field Validation of the DNDC-Rice Model for Crop Yield, Nitrous Oxide Emissions and Carbon Sequestration in a Soybean System with Rye Cover Crop Management

Qiliang Huang, Nobuko Katayanagi (), Masakazu Komatsuzaki and Tamon Fumoto
Additional contact information
Qiliang Huang: United Graduate School of Agriculture Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 3-5-8 Saiwai-cho, Fuchu, Tokyo 183-8509, Japan
Nobuko Katayanagi: Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, 3-1-3 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8604, Japan
Masakazu Komatsuzaki: College of Agriculture, Ibaraki University, 3-21-1 Ami, Ibaraki 300-0393, Japan
Tamon Fumoto: Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, 3-1-3 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8604, Japan

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 14, 1-18

Abstract: The DNDC-Rice model effectively simulates yield and greenhouse gas emissions within a paddy system, while its performance under upland conditions remains unclear. Using data from a long-term cover crop experiment (fallow [FA] vs. rye [RY]) in a soybean field, this study validated the DNDC-Rice model’s performance in simulating soil dynamics, crop growth, and C-N cycling processes in upland systems through various indicators, including soil temperature, water-filled pore space (WFPS), soybean biomass and yield, CO 2 and N 2 O fluxes, and soil organic carbon (SOC). Based on simulated results, the underestimation of cumulative N 2 O flux (25.6% in FA and 5.1% in RY) was attributed to both underestimated WFPS and the algorithm’s limitations in simulating N 2 O emission pulses. Overestimated soybean growth increased respiration, leading to the overestimation of CO 2 flux. Although the model captured trends in SOC stock, the simulated annual values differed from observations (−9.9% to +10.1%), potentially due to sampling errors. These findings indicate that the DNDC-Rice model requires improvements in its N cycling algorithm and crop growth sub-models to improve predictions for upland systems. This study provides validation evidence for applying DNDC-Rice to upland systems and offers direction for improving model simulation in paddy-upland rotation systems, thereby enhancing its applicability in such contexts.

Keywords: DNDC-Rice; greenhouse gas; soil organic carbon; cover crop (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/14/1525/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/14/1525/ (text/html)

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:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:14:p:1525-:d:1701875

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().