Table 1.
Ruminant excreta quality and its fitting to the RothC entry pools (based on scientific literature review).
Table 2.
Location, climate, soil properties, management type and input data to the model of the grassland study sites (available through the European Fluxes Database Cluster: http://www.europe-fluxdata.eu (except Solohead farm).
Table 3.
RothC versions tested in the study with the modification included in each version.
Table 4.
Model modified components used for the sensitivity analysis and their interval values.
Fig 1.
Measured and simulated annual SOC stocks (Mg C ha-1) using the default RothC model (RothC_0) and the modified RothC versions (RothC_1; RothC_2; RothC_3; and RothC_4) for the different validation sites.
(a) Laqueuille intensive grazing grassland; (b) Oensingen intensive cutting grassland; (c) Easter Bush intensive grazing grassland; and (d) Solohead dairy research farm.
Fig 2.
Measured versus predicted values of SOC stocks at the end of the simulation period using RothC_3 and RothC_4 model versions for the different study sites.
Table 5.
Root mean square error (RMSE) and mean difference of simulations and observations (BIAS) of SOC stocks (Mg C ha-1) for each model version and grassland intensive site and model efficiency (EF) and RMSE across sites.
Table 6.
Root mean square error (RMSE) and mean difference of simulations and observations (BIAS) of SOC stocks (Mg C ha-1) for each specific modification (i.e., soil moisture up to saturation, ruminant excreta quality, plant residue, poaching effect) to the model and grassland intensive site and model efficiency (EF) and RMSE across sites.
Table 7.
Root mean square error (RMSE) and mean difference of simulations and observations (BIAS) for the combined modifications (soil moisture up to saturation and poaching; ruminant excreta and plant residues; soil moisture saturation and plant residues) in Mg C ha-1 to the model and grassland intensive site and model efficiency (EF) and RMSE across sites.
Table 8.
Sensitivity index of varying resistant plant residues fraction, lignin content corresponding to animal excreta quality and the rate modifying factor for moisture from its minimum to maximum values in RothC_4 for the different study sites.