Agro-BGC

We added C4 perennial grass functionality and agricultural practices to the Biome-BGC (BioGeochemical Cycles) ecosystem model. This new model, Agro-BGC, includes enzyme-driven C4 photosynthesis, individual live and dead leaf, stem, and root carbon and nitrogen pools, separate senescence and litter fall processes, fruit growth, optional annual seeding, flood irrigation, a growing degree day phenology with a killing frost option, and a disturbance handler that simulates nitrogen fertilization, harvest, fire, and incremental irrigation. To obtain spatially generalizable vegetation parameters we used a numerical method to optimize five unavailable parameters for Panicum virgatum (switchgrass) using biomass yield data from three sites: Mead, Nebraska, Rockspring, Pennsylvania, and Mandan, North Dakota. We then verified simulated switchgrass yields at three independent sites in Illinois. Agro-BGC is more accurate than Biome-BGC in representing the physiology and dynamics of C4 grass and management practices associated with agro-ecosystems.

Validation of an agroecosystem process model (AGRO-BGC) on annual and perennial bioenergy feedstocks (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2015.10.029)