The landscape model: A model for exploring trade-offs between agricultural production and the environment

Abstract

We describe a model framework that simulates spatial and temporal interactions in agricultural landscapes and that can be used to explore trade-offs between production and environment so helping to determine solutions to the problems of sustainable food production. Here we focus on models of agricultural production, water movement and nutrient flow in a landscape. We validate these models against data from two long-term experiments, (the first a continuous wheat experiment and the other a permanent grass-land experiment) and an experiment where water and nutrient flow are measured from isolated catchments. The model simulated wheat yield (RMSE 20.3–28.6%), grain N (RMSE 21.3–42.5%) and P (RMSE 20.2–29% excluding the nil N plots), and total soil organic carbon particularly well (RMSE 3.1 − 13.8 %), the simulations of water flow were also reasonable (RMSE 180.36 and 226.02%). We illustrate the use of our model framework to explore trade-offs between production and nutrient losses.

Graphical abstract

Highlights

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  Understanding trade-offs between yield and environment is essential for SI.

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  The Landscape Model aids the understanding of crop-soil-water interactions.

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  Model validated against 50 years of data from two long-term experiments.

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  Model validated against spatially-explicit data from the North Wyke farm platform.

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  The model simulated wheat yield, grain N and grain P particularly well.