Application of the denitrification-decomposition model to predict carbon dioxide emissions under alternative straw retention methods

Abstract

Straw retention has been shown to reduce carbon dioxide (CO emission from agricultural soils. But it remains a big challenge for models to effectively predict COemission fluxes under different straw retention methods. We used maize season data in the Griffith region, Australia, to test whether the denitrification-decomposition (DNDC) model could simulate annual COemission. We also identified driving factors of COemission by correlation analysis and path analysis. We show that the DNDC model was able to simulate COemission under alternative straw retention scenarios. The correlation coefficients between simulated and observed daily values for treatments of straw burn and straw incorporation w..