Changes in soil organic carbon and nitrogen stocks in long-term experiments in southern Brazil simulated with Century 4.5

Abstract

The Century model has successfully simulated soil organic matter dynamics in many agroecosystems. However, initial applications in southern Brazil produced mixed results. The objective of this study was to calibrate and validate Century 4.5 to simulate soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics under diverse soil management practices in subtropical Brazil. Soil C and N data from two long-term experiments established on a degraded Acrisol in the early 1980s were used. Treatments were conventional or no-tillage; grass or grass/legume cropping systems; and corn with or without mineral N fertilizer. The calibration process iteratively modified model parameters to match simulated values of C additions and Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) and Soil Organic Nitrogen (SON) stocks to field data measured throughout the 25 years of the experiments. Improved fit between measured and observed data was obtained after key parameter changes. Soil C and N stocks were simulated accurately after these modifications were implemented. Other experimental treatments were used to validate the model. Century successfully simulated increases in C and N stocks under no-tillage cropping systems including legumes. However, the model overestimated Soil Organic Matter (SOM) decomposition in treatments with low N availability, like oat/corn without N fertilizer. Overall, Century version 4.5 showed adequate performance in simulating C and N trajectories of contrasting cropping systems commonly found in southern Brazil. The few discrepancies between measured and modeled SOC stocks do not preclude using Century in regional-scale applications to assess impacts of agricultural practices on soil C and N in southern Brazil.