MIOR: an individual-based model for simulating the spatial patterns of soil organic matter microbial decomposition

Authored by C Cambier, D Masse, A Brauman, S Sall, K Assigbetse, J-L Chotte

Date Published: 2007

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2389.2007.00900.x

Sponsors: PNSE

Platforms: Smalltalk

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

An individual-based model, called MIOR, was designed to assess hypotheses on the effect of the spatial distribution of organic matter and microbial decomposers on soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics. Two main types of object were defined to represent the decomposers and the soil organic substrates. All these objects were positioned in a 3D space. The exchange of carbon and nitrogen between these various entities was simulated. Two scenarios were tested according to the degrees of clustering of organic matter and of microorganisms. The results of simulations highlighted the effect of the ratio of accessible organic carbon to microbial carbon on the dynamics of microbial biomass and CO2 release. This ratio was determined by the number of contacts between one object representing the microbial decomposers and the surrounding objects representing the organic substrates.

Tags

carbon bacteria Populations Particle-size Nitrogen dynamics Mineralization Biochemical quality Crop residues Turnover Microscale