5B.3 Incorporation of crop growth models into Climate Weather Research and Forecasting model -- bio-geophysical feedbacks of maize growth to regional climate

Xu, Min, Xin-Zhong Liang, University of Maryland, and Wei Gao, Colorado State University

The Crop Environmental Resource Synthesis (CERES) maize model was incorporated into Climate Weather Research and Forecasting (CWRF) to study the interplays of crop growth and regional climate. Meanwhile, the CWRF-CROP coupled modeling system was also established to implement more crop models and to redistribute parallel computational resources from WRF 2-D tiles to CROP 1-D columns for crop models to be run parallel. Beside the CERES-maize model, CERES-wheat and a cotton growth model (GOSSYM) already have been incorporated into above coupled modeling system. In this study, we preliminary evaluate the bio-geophysical feedbacks of maize growth in U.S. Midwest Corn Belt to regional climate using the coupled CWRF-CROP modeling system. The key parameters including leaf and stem area index (LAI and SAI), canopy height and width, and root length density are dynamically simulated by the CERES-maize model and are returned to CWRF land surface model, Conjunctive Surface and Subsurface Process (CSSP) model, to calculate the land-atmosphere fluxes and feedbacks of crop growth to regional climate. Preliminary results indicate that the feedbacks of maize growth to regional climate are substantial, especially for surface climate, including surface air temperature, humidity, and precipitation. In future, further study will be conducted on the impacts of crop growth on regional hydrology and the mitigation of crop managements in responses to anticipated climate changes.