Accuracy, robustness and behavior of the STICS soil-crop model for plant, water and nitrogen outputs: Evaluation over a wide range of agro-environmental conditions in France

Abstract

Soil-crop models are increasingly used as predictive tools to assess yield and environmental impacts of agriculture in a growing diversity of contexts. They are however seldom evaluated at a given time over a wide domain of use. We tested here the performances of the STICS model (v8.2.2) with its standard set of parameters over a dataset covering 15 crops and a wide range of agropedoclimatic conditions in France. Model results showed a good overall accuracy, with little bias. Relative RMSE was larger for soil nitrate (49%) than for plant biomass (35%) and nitrogen (33%) and smallest for soil water (10%). Trends induced by contrasted environmental conditions and management practices were well reproduced. Finally, limited dependency of model errors on crops or environments indicated a satisfactory robustness. Such performances make STICS a valuable tool for studying the effects of changes in agro-ecosystems over the domain explored. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Soil-crop model; STICS; Model performances; Plant biomass; Soil nitrogen; Soil water

Published in

Environmental Modelling and Software
2015, volume: 64, pages: 177–190

SLU Authors

• Coucheney, Elsa

  • Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA)

Global goals (SDG)

SDG13 Climate action
SDG15 Life on land

UKÄ Subject classification

Soil Science
Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
Agricultural Science

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2014.11.024

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/63424