2D finite element water, solute, and heat mover model for plant models.

Most crops are grown in rows and this introduces spatial variability in soil processes with respect to the row. However, this variability can be exploited to reduce chemical transport to groundwater or improve management of irrigation water. Unless a model can account for variability perpendicular to crop rows as well as vertically into the soil profile it will not be able to fully evaluate all possible management practices that can be used to make agriculture more efficient and less harmful to the environment. To address this concern we developed 2DSOIL, the first comprehensive, modular, two-dimensional soil simulator that can simulate the major physical, chemical and biological processes in soil. Fully implemented, principles of modular modeling facilitate the addition and replacement of modules, as well as the reuse of existing code. The modularity of 2DSOIL has been designed to make it easy to modify the model and to make it easy to incorporate into plant models. 2DSOIL was used to simulate the effect of several water and nitrogen management practices and was incorporated into ARS potato and cotton models, into the Root Zone Water Quality Model, and into the USGS Modular Modeling System.