Yu et al. (2026) Resolving effects of leaf pigmentation changes and plant residue on the energy balance of winter wheat cultivation in the ORCHIDEE-CROP model

Identification

• Journal: Geoscientific model development
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-08-06
• Authors: Ke Yu, Yang Su, Ronny Lauerwald, Philippe Ciais, Yi Xi, Haoran Xu, Xianglin Zhang, Nicolas Viovy, Amie Pickering, Daniel Sebastian Goll
• DOI: 10.5194/gmd-19-7217-2026

Research Groups

• Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, 91191, France
• UMR ECOSYS, INRAE AgroParisTech, Université Paris-Saclay, Palaiseau, 91120, France
• Département d’Informatique, École Normale Supérieure-PSL, Paris, 75005, France
• Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), The Allerton Project, Loddington, Leicestershire, UK
• Département durabilité, systèmes et prospectives, Centre wallon de Recherches agronomiques (CRA-W), 6800 Libramont, Belgium

Short Summary

This study improves the representation of albedo dynamics in the ORCHIDEE-CROP model by incorporating time-varying albedo from crop pigmentation during foliar yellowing and post-harvest crop residue soil cover. The results show that incorporating these processes can increase surface albedo by 0.07 ± 0.03 and induce surface cooling by −1.55 ± 0.93 °C.

Objective

• To improve the representation of albedo dynamics in the ORCHIDEE-CROP model by incorporating time-varying albedo from crop pigmentation during foliar yellowing and post-harvest crop residue soil cover.
• To quantify the impacts of these processes on soil temperature, soil moisture, water and heat fluxes of winter wheat crops.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Site-scale simulations were performed at 10 European cropland sites.
• Temporal Scale: The study focused on a 10-year period from 2010 to 2020 for the current climate scenario and a dry scenario.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: ORCHIDEE-CROP model, which is a branched version of the process-based land surface model, ORCHIDEE.
• Data sources: Eddy-covariance measurements from the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) Data Portal, satellite-derived products at farms belonging to the ClieNFarm project.

Main Results

• The results show that incorporating foliar yellowing and post-harvest residue cover in the ORCHIDEE-CROP model can increase surface albedo by 0.07 ± 0.03 during the foliar yellowing period and 0.02 ± 0.02 during the residue covering period.
• This increase in surface albedo induces surface cooling by −1.55 ± 0.93 °C during the foliar yellowing period and −1.90 ± 0.88 °C during the residue covering period.
• The sensible heat flux changed by −8.10 ± 4.18 Wm−2 during the foliar yellowing period and −7.44 ± 3.98 Wm−2 during the residue covering period.

Contributions

• This study improves the representation of albedo dynamics in the ORCHIDEE-CROP model, which can help to better quantify the impacts of crop management practices on climate.
• The results highlight the potential of crop residue management for climate adaptation and mitigation.

Funding

• This research was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under grant agreement No. 725546.
• The study also received funding from the French National Research Agency (ANR) under grant agreement No. ANR-15-IDEX-0003.

Citation

@article{Yu2026Resolving,
  author = {Yu, Ke and Su, Yang and Lauerwald, Ronny and Ciais, Philippe and Xi, Yi and Xu, Haoran and Zhang, Xianglin and Viovy, Nicolas and Pickering, Amie and Collard, Marie and Goll, Daniel Sebastian},
  title = {Resolving effects of leaf pigmentation changes and plant residue on the energy balance of winter wheat cultivation in the ORCHIDEE-CROP model},
  journal = {Geoscientific model development},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.5194/gmd-19-7217-2026},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-7217-2026}
}