Abstract

MONTIEL, Fátima Soledad; MORENO, Rocío; DOMINGUEZ, Germán Franco  and  STUDDERT, Guillermo Alberto. Validation of rothc to simulate changes in soil organic carbon under crop-pasture rotations and no-tillage. Cienc. suelo [online]. 2019, vol.37, n.2, pp.281-297. ISSN 1850-2067.

The effect of management practices that affect soil organic carbon (COS) can be studied through simulation models. RothC is a simple model developed for cropping under conventional tillage (LC). For the soils of the Southeastern Buenos Aires Province (SEB) is has been hypothesized that RothC will simulate satisfactorily change in COS: 1) under crop-pasture rotations, and 2) under no-tillage (SD). Statistical indicators were based on the difference between observed COS values in the arable layer along a long-term experiment and the simulated ones. This was evaluated both the whole data set and discriminated between treatments of nitrogen (N) fertilization (with (Con N) and without (Sin N) N), tillage systems (SD and LC), and periods under cropping and under pasture. In general (the whole set of data or discriminated between Con N and Sin N), the model represented COS variation satisfactorily along time. On the other hand, RothC showed an acceptable behavior along periods either under cropping or under pasture in crop-pasture rotation. However, model behavior was somehow poorer when pastures in the rotation lasted more than two or three years but with prolonged previous cropping periods. Under continuous pasture RothC simulated COS variation very well. In the periods under cropping of crop-pasture rotations, changes in COS were simulated satisfactorily without difference between SD and LC. Under continuous cropping with SD, model performance was very good. It is concluded that for soils of the SEB, RothC adequately simulated changes in COS both under crop-pasture rotations and SD. However, some deviations existed in some simulations that could be attributed to the way some input data were estimated. These estimations should be adjusted to improve simulations even more.

Keywords : organic matter; cropping systems; conservation tillage; pastures.