
The program is critical in the land-grant mission of the university by serving as the centerpiece of extension efforts educating producers across Iowa and the Midwest. Iowa State University leverages the APSIM program across interdisciplinary research teams looking at climate, plant physiology, soil science, plant breeding, engineering and machine learning. “Having ISU on board with the APSIM initiative strengthens the collaborative model for the development of the platform and provides a basis for testing the platform under new conditions, ultimately leading to a more robust system of models,” Ash said. Iowa State’s contribution to the program over the years has amassed a significant amount of agricultural data from the United States to strengthen the model by providing data and expertise on North American-specific issues such as wet soils and corn and soybean crops. Building better models requires better data. ASPIM is the most advanced platform available that allows this.”Ĭomputer simulations are only as robust as their data and programming.
GO APSIM MODEL SOIL SOFTWARE
“Simulation software allows us to ask better questions, predict the outcomes of field experiments before they are designed, and look at the long-term impact of different management and climate scenarios. “Simulation software like APSIM can be thought of as the theory of agronomy,” said Kendall Lamkey, ISU agronomy department chair and professor. Specifically, the goals are to create a joint venture of research organizations that wish to lead and contribute to the ongoing development and use of APSIM.Īdditionally, the group seeks to co-develop and manage APSIM as a high-quality, world-class research tool in its field by ensuring that APSIM is developed by the facilitation of broadly-based collaborative science. The APSIM Initiative enables developments in agricultural systems modeling to be captured more rapidly and effectively within the APSIM infrastructure. “The addition of Iowa State University to the APSIM Initiative clearly demonstrates that this platform is leading the world with global applications in teaching and research,” Ash said. The APSIM Initiative is a collaboration between Australia’s national science agency CSIRO, the Queensland Government, The University of Queensland, University of Southern Queensland, and internationally with AgResearch Ltd in New Zealand and now, Iowa State University in the United States. “APSIM is used extensively to model a range of crops by research, government and industry parties around the world,” said Professor Gavin Ash, current chair of the APSIM Initiative Steering Committee and executive director for the Institute for Life Science and the Environment at the University of Southern Queensland. The Iowa State Department of Agronomy has been using the APSIM platform for 10 years. The unique set of tools provides accurate predictions of crop production in relation to climate, genotype, soil and management factors while addressing ongoing climate risks.
GO APSIM MODEL SOIL SIMULATOR
It also explores and discusses how APSIM has been evolving to a “next generation” framework with improved features and capabilities that allow its use in many diverse topics.AMES, Iowa – The Iowa State University Department of Agronomy is the first North American entity to join the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) Initiative. The partnership converges advanced modeling technology from APSIM with decades of agricultural knowledge and experience from Iowa State.ĪPSIM is internationally recognized as a highly advanced simulator of agricultural systems. (2003) and chronicles the changing external challenges and opportunities being placed on APSIM during the last decade. This paper updates the earlier work by Keating et al. Much has changed in the last decade, and the APSIM community has been exploring novel scientific domains and utilising software developments in social media, web and mobile applications to provide simulation tools adapted to new demands. (2003) described many of the fundamental attributes of APSIM in detail. From its inception twenty years ago, APSIM has evolved into a framework containing many of the key models required to explore changes in agricultural landscapes with capability ranging from simulation of gene expression through to multi-field farms and beyond. APSIM (Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator) is one such model that continues to be applied and adapted to this challenging research agenda. Agricultural systems models worldwide are increasingly being used to explore options and solutions for the food security, climate change adaptation and mitigation and carbon trading problem domains.
