Coupled modelling of soil structure dynamics, carbon cycling, hydrological processes and crop production

Soil-crop models are potentially useful tools to support analyses of the effects of climate and crop and soil management practices on crop production and the environment (e.g. carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions or the leaching of agro-chemicals). However, it is not clear whether current generation models can be used to simulate long-term trends in crop production and the environmental impacts induced by changes in climate or land use because they do not consider the effects of soil structure dynamics at seasonal to decadal  (e.g. root growth, activity of macro-fauna) and centennial time scales (e.g. changes in organic matter content) on soil hydraulic functions, hydrological processes, crop growth and carbon cycling.

Here, we present a new soil-crop model that accounts for the interactions between soil structure dynamics, carbon cycling, soil physical and hydraulic properties, soil water balance and crop growth. The importance of soil structure dynamics is illustrated by long-term simulations of soil organic matter storage, soil water balance components and crop yields for a field site in central Sweden under climate change and contrasting management practices (organic amendments and crop varieties with an enhanced allocation of carbon to roots).