# Benchmark data set for wheat growth models: field experiments and AgMIP multi-model simulations

Senthold Asseng, Franck Ewert, Pierre Martre, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Jim Jones, Jerry Hatfield, Alex Ruane, Ken Boote, Peter Thorburn, Reimund Rötter, et al.

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Senthold Asseng, Franck Ewert, Pierre Martre, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Jim Jones, et al. Benchmark data set for wheat growth models: field experiments and AgMIP multi-model simulations. Open Data Journal for Agricultural Research, 2016, 1 (1), pp.1-5. 10.18174/odjar.v1i1.14746 . hal-02630448

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<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>
Benchmark data set for wheat growth models: field experiments and AgMIP multi-model simulations

S. Asseng<fnref n="1" />*, F. Ewert<fnref n="2" />, P. Martre<fnref n="3" />,<fnref n="4" />, C. Rosenzweig<fnref n="5" />, J.W. Jones<fnref n="1" />, J.L. Hatfield<fnref n="6" />, A.C. Ruane<fnref n="5" />, K.J. Boote<fnref n="7" />, P.J. Thorburn<fnref n="8" />, R.P. Rötter<fnref n="9" />, D. Cammarano<fnref n="1" />, N. Brisson<fnref n="10" />,<fnref n="11" />,#, B. Basso<fnref n="12" />, P.K. Aggarwal<fnref n="13" />, C. Angulo<fnref n="2" />, P. Bertuzzi<fnref n="14" />, C. Biernath¹⁵, A.J. Challinor¹⁶,⁴⁰, J. Doltra<fnref n="17" />, S. Gayler<fnref n="18" />, R. Goldberg<fnref n="5" />, R. Grant<fnref n="19" />, L. Heng<fnref n="20" />, J. Hooker<fnref n="21" />, L.A. Hunt<fnref n="22" />, J. Ingwersen<fnref n="23" />, R.C. Izaurralde²⁴, K.C. Kersebaum²⁵, C. Müller<fnref n="26" />, S. Naresh Kumar<fnref n="27" />, C. Nendel²⁵, G. O'Leary<fnref n="28" />, J.E. Olesen<fnref n="29" />, T.M. Osborne<fnref n="30" />, T. Palosuo<fnref n="9" />, E. Priesack¹⁵, D. Ripoche<fnref n="14" />, M.A. Semenov<fnref n="31" />, I. Shcherbak<fnref n="12" />, P. Steduto<fnref n="32" />, C. Stöckle<fnref n="33" />, P. Stratonovitch<fnref n="31" />, T. Streck<fnref n="23" />, I. Supit<fnref n="34" />, F. Tao³⁵, M. Travasso³⁶, K. Waha<fnref n="26" />, D. Wallach³⁷, J.W. White³⁸, J.R. Williams³⁹ and J. Wolf<fnref n="34" />

<footnote n="1">¹Agricultural & Biological Engineering Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA, email: sasseng@ufl.edu,</footnote>

<footnote n="2">²Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation INRES, University of Bonn, 53115, Germany,</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³INRA, UMR1095 Genetic, Diversity and Ecophysiology of Cereals (GDEC), F-63 100 Clermont-Ferrand, France,</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴Now at INRA, UMR759 Laboratoire d'Ecophysiologie des Plantes sous Stress Environnementaux, Place Viala, F-34 060 Montpellier, France,</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY 10025,</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶National Laboratory for Agriculture and Environment, Ames, IA 50011,</footnote>

<footnote n="7">⁷Department of Agronomy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0500, USA,</footnote>

<footnote n="8">⁸CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Dutton Park QLD 4102, Australia,</footnote>

<footnote n="9">⁹Plant Production Research, MTT Agrifood Research Finland, FI-50100 Mikkeli, Finland,</footnote>

<footnote n="10">¹⁰INRA, UMR0211 Agronomie, F- 78 750 Thiverval-Grignon, France,</footnote>

<footnote n="11">¹¹AgroParisTech, UMR0211 Agronomie, F- 78 750 Thiverval-Grignon, France,</footnote>

<footnote n="12">¹²Department of Geological Sciences and W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan 48823, USA,</footnote>

<footnote n="13">¹³CCAFS, IWMI, NASC Complex, DPS Marg, New Delhi 12, India,</footnote>

<footnote n="14">¹⁴INRA, US1116 AgroClim, F- 84 914 Avignon, France, ¹⁵Institute of Soil Ecology, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, D-85764, Germany ¹⁶Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS29JT, UK,</footnote>

<footnote n="17">¹⁷Agricultural Research and Training Centre (CIFA), Cantabria Government, 39600 Muriedas, Spain,</footnote>

<footnote n="18">¹⁸WESS-Water & Earth System Science Competence Cluster, University of Tübingen, 727074 Tübingen, Germany,</footnote>

<footnote n="19">¹⁹Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2E3,</footnote>

<footnote n="20">²⁰IAEA, Vienna, Austria,</footnote>

<footnote n="21">²¹Agriculture Department, University of Reading, Reading, RG66AR, UK,</footnote>

<footnote n="22">²²Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, N1G 2W1,</footnote>

<footnote n="23">²³Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation, Universität Hohenheim, 70599 Stuttgart, ²⁴Joint Global Change Research Institute, College Park, MD 20740, USA, ²⁵Institute of Landscape Systems Analysis, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany,</footnote>

<footnote n="26">²⁶Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, 14473 Potsdam, Germany,</footnote>

<footnote n="27">²⁷Division of Environmental Sciences, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, IARI PUSA, New Delhi 110 012, India,</footnote>

<footnote n="28">²⁸Landscape & Water Sciences, Department of Primary Industries, Horsham 3400, Australia,</footnote>

<footnote n="29">²⁹Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, 8830, Tjele, Denmark,</footnote>

<footnote n="30">³⁰NCAS-Climate, Walker Institute, University of Reading, RG6 6BB, UK,</footnote>

<footnote n="31">³¹Computational and Systems Biology Department, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Herts, AL5 2JQ, UK,</footnote>

<footnote n="32">³²FAO, Rome, Italy,</footnote>

<footnote n="33">³³Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-6120,</footnote>

<footnote n="34">³⁴Plant Production Systems & Earth System Science-Climate Change, Wageningen University, 6700AA Wageningen, The Netherlands,</footnote>
**Abstract:** The data set includes a current representative management treatment from detailed, quality-tested sentinel field experiments with wheat from four contrasting environments including Australia, The Netherlands, India and Argentina. Measurements include local daily climate data (solar radiation, maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation, surface wind, dew point temperature, relative humidity, and vapor pressure), soil characteristics, frequent growth, nitrogen in crop and soil, crop and soil water and yield components. Simulations include results from 27 wheat models and a sensitivity analysis with 26 models and 30 years (1981-2010) for each location, for elevated atmospheric CO₂ and temperature changes, a heat stress sensitivity analysis at anthesis, and a sensitivity analysis with soil and crop management variations and a Global Climate Model end-century scenario.

**Keywords:** wheat, field experimental data, simulations, sensitivity analysis, climate change impact

**1 ORIGINAL PURPOSE:** The original purpose of this data set was a model intercomparison of the AgMIP-Wheat Pilot as part of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement project (http://www.agmip.org/). The field experimental data were selected from local representative, high-quality field experimental data sets with a grain yield range from 2 to 8 t ha⁻¹. The original experiments were for specific agronomic studies and included measurements of crop-model-ready single treatments of wheat experiments at four contrasting locations, including a location in The Netherlands (Wageningen (Groot and Willigen 1991)), Argentina (Balcarce (Travasso, Rodriguez and Grondona 1995)), India (New Delhi (Naveen 1986)), and Australia (Wongan Hills (Asseng et al. 1998)) representing a wide range of growing conditions. The data were quality-checked and considered high-quality sentinel sites. The experimental data were used in observation-model comparisons and as the foundation for a sensitivity and uncertainty analysis for climate change impact assessments. The study was published by Asseng et al. (2013) and Martre et al. (2014). Details of the field and simulated experimental design are supplied in the Supplementary of Asseng et al. (2013) and Martre et al. (2014). A subset of the data was also published by Challinor et al. (2014). Observed variables include grain yield (t ha⁻¹), anthesis date (DOY); maturity date (DOY), grain N (kg N ha⁻¹); grains per square meter (# m⁻²); cumulative evapotranspiration (mm); cumulative N mineralization (kg N ha⁻¹); plant available soil water to maximum rooting depth (mm); soil mineral N to maximum rooting depth (kg N ha⁻¹). Note, that not all measurements were available across all four experiments.

**2 SIMULATION OF FIELD EXPERIMENTS:** Simulations for the four experiments were carried out by 27 wheat models (see Supplementary of Asseng et al. (2013)). The annual simulation outputs included: grain yield (t ha⁻¹); above-ground biomass at anthesis (kg ha⁻¹); above-ground biomass at maturity (kg ha⁻¹); maximum leaf area index (LAI, m² m⁻²); anthesis date (DOY); maturity date (DOY); cumulative soil N leaching (kg N ha⁻¹); cumulative soil water loss (mm); total above-ground N at anthesis (kg N ha⁻¹); total above-ground N at maturity (kg N ha⁻¹); grain N (kg N ha⁻¹); number of grains per square meter (# m⁻²); cumulative evapotranspiration (mm); cumulative N mineralization (kg N ha⁻¹); cumulative N volatilization (kg N ha⁻¹); cumulative N immobilization (kg N ha⁻¹); cumulative N denitrification (kg N ha⁻¹); plant available soil water to maximum rooting depth (mm); soil mineral N to maximum rooting depth (kg N ha⁻¹).

<footnote n="35"><sup>35</sup>Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100101, China,</footnote>

<footnote n="36"><sup>36</sup>Institute for Climate and Water, INTA-CIRN, 1712 Castelar, Argentina,</footnote>

<footnote n="37"><sup>37</sup>INRA, UMR 1248 Agrosystèmes et développement territorial (AGIR), 31326 Castanet-Tolosan Cedex, France,</footnote>

<footnote n="38"><sup>38</sup>Arid-Land Agricultural Research Center, Maricopa, AZ 85138, USA, <sup>39</sup>Texas A&M University, USA,</footnote>

<footnote n="40"><sup>40</sup> CGIAR-ESSP Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), A.A. 6713, Cali, Colombia.</footnote>

<footnote>* email: sasseng@ufl.edu</footnote>

<footnote># Dr. Nadine Brisson passed away in 2011 while this work was being carried out.</footnote>
<table><caption>**Table 1.** Layout of the field experiments. Modified after Asseng et al. (2013).</caption><thead><tr><th colspan="5">Experiment</th></tr><tr><th>Country</th><th>The Netherlands</th><th>Argentina</th><th>India</th><th>Australia</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Location</td><td>Wageningen</td><td>Balcarce</td><td>New Delhi</td><td>Wongan Hills</td></tr><tr><td>Latitude (°)</td><td>51.97</td><td>-37.5</td><td>28.38</td><td>-30.89</td></tr><tr><td>Longitude (°)</td><td>5.63</td><td>-58.3</td><td>77.12</td><td>116.72</td></tr><tr><td>Environment</td><td>high-yielding long-season</td><td>high/medium-yielding medium-season</td><td>irrigated short-season</td><td>low-yielding rain-fed short-season</td></tr><tr><td>Mean growing season</td><td>Nov.-July</td><td>Jun.-Dec.</td><td>Nov.-April</td><td>May-Dec.</td></tr><tr><td>Soil type</td><td>Silty clay loam</td><td>Clay loam</td><td>Sandy loam</td><td>Loamy sand</td></tr><tr><td>Cultivar name</td><td>Arminda</td><td>Oasis</td><td>HD 2009</td><td>Gamenya</td></tr><tr><td>Experimental year</td><td>1982/83</td><td>1992</td><td>1984/85</td><td>1984</td></tr><tr><td>Mean growing season temperature (°C)</td><td>8.8</td><td>13.7</td><td>17.3</td><td>14.0</td></tr><tr><td>Mean growing season precipitation (mm)</td><td>595</td><td>336</td><td>383*</td><td>164</td></tr></tbody></table>

Includes 383 mm of irrigation.

Each of the 27 wheat models was used to simulate the field experiments in two separate steps: 1) with limited in-season information from the experiments being made available to the modelers (partial calibration or 'blind' simulations), and 2) all available information being made available to the modelers (full calibration). Simulations with partially calibrated models were included to allow a more objective model assessment. For the partial calibration or 'blind model test', modelers had no access to measurements of grain yield, biomass, and crop water and N dynamics, receiving information only on soil characteristics, initial soil-water conditions, daily weather data, crop management, and flowering and maturity dates. For full calibration, modelers had access to all available measurements, including within-season and final biomass, water and N uptake, soil water and soil N, grain yield and yield components.

**3 MODEL SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS:** In addition to simulations of the single-year experiments, simulations were carried out with long-term measured daily climate data (solar radiation, maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation, surface wind, dew point temperature, relative humidity, and vapor pressure) using measured soil characteristics, measured initial soil water and soil N contents, crop management, measured anthesis and maturity dates from the single-year-experiments. For the baseline, daily climate data for the period 1980-2010 were used for all locations (31 years of climate data are required to simulate 30 years of yields in The Netherlands and India). For the location in India, solar radiation was obtained from the NASA/POWER dataset that extends back to 1983 (http://power.larc.nasa.gov). Missing data for 1980 to 1983 were filled in using the Weatherman tool included in DSSAT 4.5. In addition, 2-meter wind speed (km d⁻¹), dew point temperature (°C), vapor pressure (hPa), and relative humidity (%) were estimated for each location from the NASA Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA). For the location in The Netherlands, measured wind speed and vapor pressure were available. In the sensitivity analysis, daily temperatures were changed in steps of 3°C from -3 to +9°C and atmospheric CO₂ concentrations were changed in steps of 90 ppm from 360 to 720 ppm. In addition, a sensitivity analysis of heat stress impact was carried out with the 1981-2010 climate data by introducing seven days of maximum temperature of 35°C starting at the measured anthesis day for each location. In a sensitivity analysis on variations in soil and crop management, at each location, the plant-available water-holding capacity of the local soil was varied by +/- 20%, the crop sowing date was varied by +/- 20 days and N-fertiliser applications were varied by +/- 50% and simulated with the baseline (1981-2010) and a Global Climate Model end-century scenario.
<table><caption>**Table 2. Layout of the AgMIP Pilot simulations**</caption><thead><tr><td>Simulation steps</td><td>Description</td><td>Model output</td><td>Simulation file name</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Experimental year, low information</td><td>Simulation of the four single treatment experiments with low prior information (limited calibration)</td><td>Daily and summary</td><td>1.1_experiment_years_(annual summary_low_and_all_info).txt<br>1.2_experiment_years_(dynamic s_low_and_all_information).txt</td></tr><tr><td>Baseline 30-years simulation, low information</td><td>30-years simulations with baseline (past) weather data and low prior information (limited calibration)</td><td>Summary</td><td>2_30 Years simulations_(low_an d_all_information).txt</td></tr><tr><td>Experimental year, all information</td><td>Simulation of the four single treatment experiments with all prior information (full calibration)</td><td>Daily and summary</td><td>1.1_experiment_years_(annual summary_low_and_all_info).txt<br>1.2_experiment_years_(dynamic s_low_and_all_information).txt</td></tr><tr><td>Baseline 30-years simulation, all information</td><td>30-years simulations with baseline (past) weather data and all prior information (full calibration)</td><td>Summary</td><td>2_30 Years simulations_(low_an d_all_information).txt</td></tr><tr><td>Limited factors sensitivity analysis, all information</td><td>Factorial manipulation of CO2 (360, 450, 540, 630, 720 ppm), temperature (-3, 0, 3, 6, 9°C) N (-50%, 100% and 150% of experiment), factors for 30 years of baseline weather</td><td>Summary</td><td>3_SA_limited_factors_(all_inform ation).txt</td></tr><tr><td>Special factor sensitivity analysis, all information</td><td>Baseline (360 ppm CO2) and end-of-century (single A2 scenario; 734 ppm CO2) weather with either 7 days with 35°C maximum daily temperature starting at observed anthesis date, ± 50% N fertilizer rate (for end-of-century only), ± 20 days in sowing date, or ± 20% in plant available soil water (changed drained lower limit)</td><td>Summary</td><td>4_SA_special_factors_(all_inform ation).txt</td></tr></tbody></table>

Model input (cultivar information and crop management), soil description and initial conditions data for simulation set up are in Excel spreadsheets provided with the data. All simulation results are in text files (tab delimited). The file name and variable names are explained in Excel spreadsheets as part of the data set.
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