RUEdesSOLS

Soils, as reservoirs for the green water, are essential in agricultural ecosystem services. Their hydric functioning in water balance model is described by their Available Water Content AWC, i.e. the maximum quantity of water available for plant growth. No consensus exists about neither its definition nor its real value, whereas it is a widely used concept, known by farmers and scientists as well. AWC is estimated on soil by soil scientists, using laboratory measurements, field monitoring, or calculation by pedotransfer functions using soil databases. Ecophysiologists and agronomists estimate AWC from in-situ monitoring of plant development, or inverse modelling of crop models. The RUEdesSOLS project then aims at developing, evaluating, benchmarking and coupling references methods in a synergistic and interdisciplinary scheme, to propose a methodology for the AWC estimation that could be used in a large range of pedoclimatic conditions at plot and territory scales. It also consists in analysing the impact of uncertainty associated to these AWC estimates. To reach these objectives, the RUEdesSOLS consortium gathers scientists from the field of soil science, ecophysiology, agronomy, remote sensing and modelling. It is a mixed consortium with partners involved in basic research (INRA, CNRS, CNES, University of Toulouse) and other involved in applied research (ARVALIS, CETIOM). It is organized in 6 workpackages dedicated to i) the management of the project, the sharing of data and the dissemination [WP1], ii) the comparison and fusion of soil-based and plant-based approaches [WP2], iii) the measurement of soil/plant parameters and the collection of legacy data [WP3], iv) the soil-based estimation of AWC [WP4], v) the plant-based estimation of AWC [WP5], and iv) the impact analysis of the AWC estimations on two applied study-cases in relation with the estimation of ecosystem services, say the sunflower yield and the maize irrigation. The transfer of the RUEdesSOLS project toward end-users is assured by the three UMTs (Unité Mixte Technologique) CAPTE, EAU and TOURNESOL, whose assignment is to transfer scientific results from basic research into applied contexts, and by the RMT (Réseau Mixte Technologique) Sols & Territoires, that intends to increase and enhance soil knowledge, from the farm scale to rural territories.