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Using the AquaCrop model to simulate sesame performance in response to superabsorbent polymer and humic acid application under limited irrigation conditions

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Abstract

Quantification of the effects of water consumption technologies on sesame performance has not been evaluated by any model yet. Field experiments were conducted to assess the sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) response to limited irrigation in an arid region. Experimental factors were irrigation levels (deficit and full irrigation; DI, FI respectively), application of superabsorbent polymer (SAP) (80 kg ha−1), foliar application of humic acid (HA) (6 kg ha−1), and control which were arranged in the split strip plot design. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated the robustness of the AquaCrop model for simulation of soil water content, sesame canopy cover, and final production. Satisfactory results were obtained for the simulation of biomass (B) (R2 = 0.92, EF = 0.87) and seed yield (SY) (R2 = 0.88, EF = 0.85). NRMSE (%) values for the simulated B (7.3%) and SY (6.9%) along with other model evaluation statistics confirmed the potential of the model for the study application. Model accuracy in simulating water use efficiency (WUE) (R2 = 0.70) and harvest index (HI) (R2 = 0.61) was slightly lower than SY and B. Comparison of the measured and simulated B, HI and WUE obtained for DI+SAP treatments revealed that the application of SAP under DI condition was an efficient approach and a useful alternative to FI at water scarcity conditions. Slight differences between the measured and simulated values of SY, B, HI, and WUE under conditions of application of SAP and HA as eco-friendly inputs and the results’ consistency with other studies indicate the benefits of these inputs in arid regions for enhancing the performance of sesame crop.

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Additional data may be available on request to the authors; please contact the corresponding author. We are legally responsible for information, data, used methods, and results.

Abbreviations

CC:

canopy cover

CCx:

maximum canopy cover

ET:

evapotranspiration

ETo:

reference evapotranspiration

GDD:

growing degree day

HI:

harvest index

LAI:

leaf area index

WP*:

normalized water productivity of the crop

B:

biomass

SY:

seed yield

HI:

harvest index

WUE:

water use efficiency

EUW:

effective use of water

SMC:

soil moisture content

ƟPWP :

soil moisture content at the permanent wilting point

ƟFC :

soil moisture content at the field capacity

Ksat :

soil saturated hydraulic conductivity

Ksexp :

water stress coefficient of canopy expansion

Kssto :

water stress coefficient of stomata closure

Kssen :

soil water stress coefficient of senescence

NRMSE:

normalized root mean square error

R2 :

coefficient of determination

d:

the index of agreement of Willmott

NSE:

the Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency index

CRM:

coefficient of residual mass

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Acknowledgments

Authors express their gratitude to Prof. M. Banayan, Dr. M.H. Fallah, and Dr. E. Farrokhi whose comments and suggestions were extremely valuable and helped improve this study.

Funding

Partial financial support of the Center of Excellence for Special Crops (CESC) facilities for conducting this experiment is acknowledged.

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Authors

Contributions

The authors of this research paper have directly participated in the planning, execution, or analysis of this study. The authors read and approved the final edition of the manuscript. CRediT author statement: Mahdi Nassiri-Mahallati: project administration, conceptualization, methodology, investigation, software, writing—reviewing and editing. Mohsen Jahan: investigation, data curation, software, formal analysis, validation, writing—original draft preparation.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohsen Jahan.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Code availability

The software (AquaCrop) applied is available on the FAO site and after the second author’s registration; the latest version (6.1) of the model was downloaded and employed. All used and created codes are available on demand.

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This research meets all the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements of my country.

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Nassiri-Mahallati, M., Jahan, M. Using the AquaCrop model to simulate sesame performance in response to superabsorbent polymer and humic acid application under limited irrigation conditions. Int J Biometeorol 64, 2105–2117 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-020-02001-z

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