TY - JOUR
T1 - Use of a coupled soil-root-leaf model to optimise phosphate fertiliser use efficiency in barley
AU - Heppell, J.
AU - Payvandi, S.
AU - Talboys, P.
AU - Zygalakis, K. C.
AU - Langton, D.
AU - Sylvester-Bradley, R.
AU - Edwards, Anthony C.
AU - Walker, Robin L.
AU - Withers, P.
AU - Jones, D. L.
AU - Roose, T.
PY - 2016/9
Y1 - 2016/9
N2 - Aims: Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient necessary for maintaining crop growth, however, it’s often used inefficiently within agroecosystems, driving industry to find new ways to deliver P to crops sustainably. We aim to combine traditional soil and crop measurements with climate-driven mathematical models, to give insight into optimising the timing and placement of fertiliser applications. Methods: The whole plant crop model combines an above-ground leaf model with an existing spatially explicit below-ground root-soil model to estimate plant P uptake and above ground dry mass. We let P-dependent photosynthesis estimate carbon (C) mass, which in conjunction with temperature sets the root-growth-rate. Results: The addition of the leaf model achieved a better estimate of two sets of barley field trial data for plant P uptake, compared with just the root-soil model alone. Furthermore, discrete fertiliser placement increases plant P uptake by up to 10 % in comparison to incorporating fertiliser. Conclusions: By capturing essential plant processes we are able to accurately simulate P and C use and water and P movement during a cropping season. The powerful combination of mechanistic modelling and experimental data allows physiological processes to be quantified accurately and useful agricultural predictions for site specific locations to be made.
AB - Aims: Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient necessary for maintaining crop growth, however, it’s often used inefficiently within agroecosystems, driving industry to find new ways to deliver P to crops sustainably. We aim to combine traditional soil and crop measurements with climate-driven mathematical models, to give insight into optimising the timing and placement of fertiliser applications. Methods: The whole plant crop model combines an above-ground leaf model with an existing spatially explicit below-ground root-soil model to estimate plant P uptake and above ground dry mass. We let P-dependent photosynthesis estimate carbon (C) mass, which in conjunction with temperature sets the root-growth-rate. Results: The addition of the leaf model achieved a better estimate of two sets of barley field trial data for plant P uptake, compared with just the root-soil model alone. Furthermore, discrete fertiliser placement increases plant P uptake by up to 10 % in comparison to incorporating fertiliser. Conclusions: By capturing essential plant processes we are able to accurately simulate P and C use and water and P movement during a cropping season. The powerful combination of mechanistic modelling and experimental data allows physiological processes to be quantified accurately and useful agricultural predictions for site specific locations to be made.
KW - Above and below ground
KW - Barley field study
KW - Fertiliser strategy
KW - Mathematical modelling
KW - Phosphate
KW - Phosphorus
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84963776473&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11104-016-2883-4
DO - 10.1007/s11104-016-2883-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84963776473
VL - 406
SP - 341
EP - 357
JO - Plant and Soil: An International Journal on Plant-Soil Relationships
JF - Plant and Soil: An International Journal on Plant-Soil Relationships
SN - 0032-079X
IS - 1-2
ER -