The Century5 Models

The Century5 soil-plant ecosystem model simulates C, N, P, and S dynamics through an annual cycle over time scales of centuries and millennia. The producer submodel may be a grassland/crop, forest or savanna system, with the flexibility of specifying potential primary production curves representing the site-specific plant community. Century5 was especially developed to deal with a wide range of cropping system rotations and tillage practices for system analysis of the effects of management and global change on productivity and sustainability of soil-plant systems. Century5 is available in monthly and daily time-step versions — Century5 and DayCent5.

The daily time-step version, DayCent5, provides enhanced resolution of all the processes simulated by Century5, including production, decomposition, and soil hydrology and temperature. Additional algorithms include trace gasses and maintenance respiration. Daily weather data drives the model, though monthly weather or the site parameter's statistical monthly weather can be used.