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Title: Water requirements of short rotation poplar coppice: Experimental and modelling analyses across Europe

Abstract

Poplars are among the most widely used short rotation woody coppice (SRWC) species but due to their assumed high water use, concerns have been raised with respect to large-scale exploitation and potentially detrimental effects on water resources. Here we present a quantitative analysis of the water requirements of poplar SRWC using experimental data and a soil water balance modelling approach at three different sites across Europe. We used (i) eddy covariance (EC) measurements (2004–2006) at an irrigated SRWC grown on a previous rice paddy in northern Italy, (ii) Bowen ratio and energy balance (BREB) measurements (2008–2015) and EC (2011–2015) at a SRWC in rain-fed uplands in the Czech Republic, and (iii) EC measurements (2010–2013) at a SRWC on a previous agricultural land with a shallow water table in Belgium. Without any calibration against water balance component measurements, simulations by the newly developed soil water balance model R-4ET were compared with evapotranspiration (ET) measurements by EC and BREB with a resulting mean root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.75 mm day-1. In general, there was better agreement between EC and the model (RMSE = 0.66 mm day-1) when EC data were adjusted for lack of energy balance closure. A comparison ofmore » the simulated and measured soil water content yielded a mean RMSE of 0.03 m3 m-3. The mean annual crop coefficient, i.e. the ratio between actual and reference ET, was 0.82 (ranging from 0.65 to 0.95) while the monthly maxima reached 1.16. These values indicated that ET of poplar SRWC was significantly lower than ET of a well-watered grass cover at the annual time scale, but exceeded ET of the reference cover at shorter time scales during the growing season. We show that the model R-4ET is a simple, yet reliable tool for the assessment of water requirements of existing or planned SRWC. For very simple assessments on an annual basis, using a crop coefficient of 0.86 (adjusted to a sub-humid climate), representing an average value across the three sites in years with no evident drought stress, is supported by this analysis.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [5];  [6];  [3];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [2]
  1. Global Change Research Institute CAS, Brno (Czech Republic); North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
  2. Univ. of Antwerp, Wilrijk (Belgium)
  3. Global Change Research Institute CAS, Brno (Czech Republic); Mendel Univ., Brno (Czech Republic)
  4. Free Univ. of Bolzano (italy)
  5. North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  6. Global Change Research Institute CAS, Brno (Czech Republic)
  7. European Commission Joint Research Centre, Ispra (Italy)
  8. Mendel Univ., Brno (Czech Republic)
  9. North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1427672
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 250-251; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0168-1923
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Citation Formats

Fischer, Milan, Zenone, Terenzio, Trnka, Miroslav, Orsag, Matej, Montagnani, Leonardo, Ward, Eric J., Tripathi, Abhishek Mani, Hlavinka, Petr, Seufert, Gunther, Zalud, Zdenek, King, John S., and Ceulemans, Reinhart. Water requirements of short rotation poplar coppice: Experimental and modelling analyses across Europe. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2017.12.079.
Fischer, Milan, Zenone, Terenzio, Trnka, Miroslav, Orsag, Matej, Montagnani, Leonardo, Ward, Eric J., Tripathi, Abhishek Mani, Hlavinka, Petr, Seufert, Gunther, Zalud, Zdenek, King, John S., & Ceulemans, Reinhart. Water requirements of short rotation poplar coppice: Experimental and modelling analyses across Europe. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2017.12.079
Fischer, Milan, Zenone, Terenzio, Trnka, Miroslav, Orsag, Matej, Montagnani, Leonardo, Ward, Eric J., Tripathi, Abhishek Mani, Hlavinka, Petr, Seufert, Gunther, Zalud, Zdenek, King, John S., and Ceulemans, Reinhart. Tue . "Water requirements of short rotation poplar coppice: Experimental and modelling analyses across Europe". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2017.12.079. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1427672.
@article{osti_1427672,
title = {Water requirements of short rotation poplar coppice: Experimental and modelling analyses across Europe},
author = {Fischer, Milan and Zenone, Terenzio and Trnka, Miroslav and Orsag, Matej and Montagnani, Leonardo and Ward, Eric J. and Tripathi, Abhishek Mani and Hlavinka, Petr and Seufert, Gunther and Zalud, Zdenek and King, John S. and Ceulemans, Reinhart},
abstractNote = {Poplars are among the most widely used short rotation woody coppice (SRWC) species but due to their assumed high water use, concerns have been raised with respect to large-scale exploitation and potentially detrimental effects on water resources. Here we present a quantitative analysis of the water requirements of poplar SRWC using experimental data and a soil water balance modelling approach at three different sites across Europe. We used (i) eddy covariance (EC) measurements (2004–2006) at an irrigated SRWC grown on a previous rice paddy in northern Italy, (ii) Bowen ratio and energy balance (BREB) measurements (2008–2015) and EC (2011–2015) at a SRWC in rain-fed uplands in the Czech Republic, and (iii) EC measurements (2010–2013) at a SRWC on a previous agricultural land with a shallow water table in Belgium. Without any calibration against water balance component measurements, simulations by the newly developed soil water balance model R-4ET were compared with evapotranspiration (ET) measurements by EC and BREB with a resulting mean root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.75 mm day-1. In general, there was better agreement between EC and the model (RMSE = 0.66 mm day-1) when EC data were adjusted for lack of energy balance closure. A comparison of the simulated and measured soil water content yielded a mean RMSE of 0.03 m3 m-3. The mean annual crop coefficient, i.e. the ratio between actual and reference ET, was 0.82 (ranging from 0.65 to 0.95) while the monthly maxima reached 1.16. These values indicated that ET of poplar SRWC was significantly lower than ET of a well-watered grass cover at the annual time scale, but exceeded ET of the reference cover at shorter time scales during the growing season. We show that the model R-4ET is a simple, yet reliable tool for the assessment of water requirements of existing or planned SRWC. For very simple assessments on an annual basis, using a crop coefficient of 0.86 (adjusted to a sub-humid climate), representing an average value across the three sites in years with no evident drought stress, is supported by this analysis.},
doi = {10.1016/j.agrformet.2017.12.079},
journal = {Agricultural and Forest Meteorology},
number = C,
volume = 250-251,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Dec 26 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Tue Dec 26 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}

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Works referencing / citing this record:

From Local to Global: A Transfer Learning-Based Approach for Mapping Poplar Plantations at Large Scale
conference, March 2020

  • Hamrouni, Yousra; Paillassa, Eric; Cheret, Veronique
  • 2020 Mediterranean and Middle-East Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (M2GARSS)
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