Developing genotype-specific sorghum modeling in the community land model

                                             Steven Billington and Yang Song

                                    Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences

                                         The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

Arizona’s climate is changing with more extreme heatwaves and droughts, threatening crop productivity with intensified abiotic stresses. Crop engineering is developing various crop genotypes with enhanced tolerance to water and heat stress, meanwhile, land surface model  (LSM) still lack ability to forecast productivity of different crop genotypes, bringing challenges in apply LSM to assess long-term climate resilience of different crop genotypes and their biogeochemical and biogeophysical impacts. Here we integrated the sorghum genotype engineering experiments in the Arizona to parameterize genotype-based crop growth dynamics in the NCAR community land model (CLM5.0). We employ genotype-specific photosynthetic assimilation rates, water stress responses, biomass and yields observations from the Maricopa County to parameterize genotype-specific phenology, coupled photosynthesis and transpiration, carbon allocation processes in CLM5.0. The presentation will show how well the model can capture genotype-specific sorghum growth in Arizona. Finally, we will employ this model to help determine which genotypes of sorghum are most resistant to climate extremes.