Testing the adequacy of measured data for evaluating nitrogen turnover models by the dot-to-dot method

A - Papers appearing in refereed journals

Smith, J. U., Smith, P., Richter, G. M., Agostini, F. A. and Welham, S. J. 2003. Testing the adequacy of measured data for evaluating nitrogen turnover models by the dot-to-dot method. European Journal of Soil Science. 54 (1), pp. 175-185. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2389.2003.00501.x

AuthorsSmith, J. U., Smith, P., Richter, G. M., Agostini, F. A. and Welham, S. J.
Abstract

Dynamic models of nitrogen turnover in soil are being used increasingly in agricultural science. To be of value, a model must be thoroughly evaluated, and the expected accuracy of simulated values must be defined. Frequent field measurements are time-consuming and costly, and so models are often evaluated against only few data. However, this mismatch between the measured and simulated values can result in error statistics that are themselves subject to large errors and therefore unreliable. The dot-to-dot method quantifies the error associated with having too few measured values by interpolating linearly between measured data (hence, dot-to-dot) and evaluating the simulation at each time step using interpolated data where actual measurements are unavailable. A large error will be seen if the measured data do not capture the fluctuations predicted by the model. Other quantitative methods can be used to evaluate the performance of a model, but the dot-to-dot method can be used in conjunction with these to estimate whether or not the data are adequate for testing the model. If the performance of the model at the measured points is within the acceptable error, then the dot-to-dot method is used to judge whether there are too few points to evaluate the model's performance, and so to determine whether the evaluation of the model is valid.

KeywordsSoil Science
Year of Publication2003
JournalEuropean Journal of Soil Science
Journal citation54 (1), pp. 175-185
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2389.2003.00501.x
Open accessPublished as non-open access
Funder project or code444
445
511
513
ISSN13510754
1351-0754
PublisherWiley

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