Modelling water and nutrient dynamics in soil-crop systems: Applications of different models to common data sets - Proceedings of a workshop held 2004 in Muencheberg, Germany

Soil–crop–atmosphere interactions play a central role in well with the interest of agro-meteorologists, who the multiple functions of rural landscapes. Agricultural, look for new applications and for customers of their environmental and economic aspects are related to this products. Therefore, the workshop was gratefully s- topic, and there is an increasing need to understand the ported by the COST Action 718 “Meteorological complex system to develop reliable models for scenario Applications in Agriculture” under the umbrella of the analyses. Agro-ecosystem models are more and more European Science Foundation (ESF). In June 2004, used to support decision-making on different scales the workshop was held in Müncheberg with the p- towards a sustainable land use and management. ticipation of 38 scientists from nine different coun- Nevertheless, the increasing demand of model users for tries. Twenty presentations were given for the blocks model validation does not fit to the decrease of research experimental site description, water dynamic mod- budgets for suitable experimental research and monitor- ling, soil and crop interactions, nutrient and water ing. The increasing family of modellers is confronted dynamics in soil–crop systems and long-term nutrient with a decrease of available data for model testing. and carbon dynamics. Model workshops providing common data sets for The organizers wish to acknowledge the financial a number of modellers are not new, but became rare contribution of the European Science Foundation during the last years. Therefore, the Leibniz Centre of (ESF) and COST 718.

Soil-crop-atmosphere interactions play a central role in the multiple functions of rural landscapes. Agro-ecosystem models are increasingly used to support decision making on different scales towards sustainable land use and management.This is accompanied by a demand of model users for model validation to get an idea about the reliability of models. This book contains articles from a workshop on "Modelling water and nutrient dynamics in crop-soil systems". Data sets from lysimeters and experimental fields of multiyear crop rotations were provided for modellers. A unique data set is provided of a 100 year long term field experiment regarding crop yield and organic carbon development under different management systems.

The book includes a detailed description of data sets which can be used by modellers and the papers describe the applications of 18 different modelling approaches describing soil-crop-atmosphere interactions for water, nitrogen and carbon dynamics.

A comparison of the models applied to the same data set is provided which points out similarities and differences in the description of single processes between the model approaches. This gives potential model users and decision makers the opportunity to compare the model outputs and get a closer insight about the applicability and required adaptations for the participating models.