Modelling water and nutrient dynamics in soil-crop systems

Soil–crop–atmosphere interactions play a central role in well with the interest of agro-meteorologists, who the multiple functions of rural landscapes. Agricultural, look for new applications and for customers of their environmental and economic aspects are related to this products. Therefore, the workshop was gratefully s- topic, and there is an increasing need to understand the ported by the COST Action 718 “Meteorological complex system to develop reliable models for scenario Applications in Agriculture” under the umbrella of the analyses. Agro-ecosystem models are more and more European Science Foundation (ESF). In June 2004, used to support decision-making on different scales the workshop was held in Müncheberg with the p- towards a sustainable land use and management. ticipation of 38 scientists from nine different coun- Nevertheless, the increasing demand of model users for tries. Twenty presentations were given for the blocks model validation does not fit to the decrease of research experimental site description, water dynamic mod- budgets for suitable experimental research and monitor- ling, soil and crop interactions, nutrient and water ing. The increasing family of modellers is confronted dynamics in soil–crop systems and long-term nutrient with a decrease of available data for model testing. and carbon dynamics. Model workshops providing common data sets for The organizers wish to acknowledge the financial a number of modellers are not new, but became rare contribution of the European Science Foundation during the last years. Therefore, the Leibniz Centre of (ESF) and COST 718.