Title
Performance of the SUBSTOR-potato model across contrasting growing conditions
Date Issued
15 February 2017
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Raymundo R.
Asseng S.
Prassad R.
Kleinwechter U.
Condori B.
Bowen W.
Wolf J.
Olesen J.E.
Dong Q.
Zotarelli L.
Alva A.
Travasso M.
Quiroz R.
Arora V.
Graham W.
Porter C.
Publisher(s)
Elsevier B.V.
Abstract
Crop models are essential tools in climate change impact assessments, but they often lack comprehensive field testing. In this study, we tested the SUBSTOR-potato model with 87 field experiments, including 204 treatments from 19 countries. The field experiments varied in potato species and cultivars, N fertilizer application, water supply, sowing dates, soil types, temperature environments, and atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and included open top chamber and Free-Air-CO2-Enrichment (FACE) experiments. Tuber yields were generally well simulated with the SUBSTOR-potato model across a wide range of current growing conditions and for diverse potato species and cultivars, including Solanum tuberosum, Solanum andigenum, Solanum juzepczukii species, as well as modern, traditional, early, medium, and late maturity-type cultivars, with a relative RMSE of 37.2% for tuber dry weight and 21.4% for tuber fresh weight. Cultivars ‘Desiree’ and ‘Atlantic’ were grown in experiments across the globe and well simulated using consistent cultivar parameters. However, the model underestimated the impact of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations and poorly simulated high temperature effects on crop growth. Other simulated crop variables, including leaf area, stem weight, crop N, and soil water, differed frequently from measurements; some of these variables had significant large measurement errors. The SUBSTOR-potato model was shown to be suitable to simulate tuber growth and yields over a wide range of current growing conditions and crop management practices across many geographic regions. However, before the model can be used effectively in climate change impact assessments, it requires improved model routines to capture the impacts of elevated atmospheric CO2 and high temperatures on crop growth.
Start page
57
End page
76
Volume
202
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Agronomía
Agricultura
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84964643216
Source
Field Crops Research
ISSN of the container
03784290
Sponsor(s)
We thank the International Research Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the USAID linkage fund project “Collaboration between the International Potato Center (CIP) and the University of Florida (UF) to better understand and prioritize climate change adaptation needs for food security in the Andes”.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus