Using CropSyst to simulate spring wheat growth in black soil zone of northeast China

Available water and fertilizer have been the main limiting factors for yields of spring wheat, which occupies a large area of the black soil zone in northeast China; thus, the need to set up appropriate models for scenario analysis of cropping system models has been increasing. The capability of CropSyst, a cropping system simulation model, to simulate spring wheat growth of a widely grown spring cultivar, 'Longmai 19', in the black soil zone in northeast China under different water and nitrogen regimes was evaluated. Field data collected from a rotation experiment of three growing seasons (1992-1994) were used to calibrate and validate the model. The model was run for 3 years by providing initial conditions at the beginning of the rotation without reinitializing the model in later years in the rotation sequence. Crop input parameters were set based on measured data or taken from CropSyst manual. A few cultivar-specific parameters were adjusted within a reasonable range of fluctuation. The results demonstrated the robustness of CropSyst for simulating evapotranspiration, aboveground biomass, and grain yield of 'Longmai 19' spring wheat with the root mean square errors being 7%, 13% and 13% of the observed means for evapotranspiration (ET), grain yield and aboveground biomass, respectively. Although CropSyst was able to simulate spring production reasonably well, further evaluation and improvement of the model with a more detailed field database was desirable for agricultural systems in northeast China.