Abstract
Crop simulation models are valuable tools for estimating crop yield, environmental factors and management practices. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of soil types on barley productivity using CERES (Crop Environment REsource Synthesis)-barley, cropping system model. So the behavior of the model under various soil types and climatic conditions was evaluated. The results of the sensitivity analysis in temperature, $CO_2$, and precipitation showed that soil types had a direct impact on the simulated yield of CERES-barley model. We found that barley yield in clay soils would be more sensitive to precipitation and $CO_2$ in comparison with temperature. And the model showed limited accuracy in simulating water and nitrogen stress index for soil types. In general, the barley grown on clay soils were less sensitive to water stress than those grown on sandy soils. Especially it was found that the CERES model underestimated the effect of water stress in high precipitation which led to overprediction of crop yield in clay soils. In order to solve these problems and successfully forecast grain yield, further studies on the modification of the water stress response of crops should be considered prior to use of the CERES-barley model for yield forecasting.
