Impact of Multifactor Global Change On Crop Productivity and Soil Organic Carbon Storage in India During 1880–2010.

Recently, concerns have been raised on how the multifactor environmental change may affect the crop productivity and soil organic carbon storage in India. Today, India is a home to a huge population of approximately 1.2 billion (~17% of the global human population) which is still growing much faster rate (1.5% per year) than other high population countries such as China. In the past, the population growth has resulted in agricultural expansion through land conversions coupled with higher use of nitrogen fertilizers and improved irrigation facilities to increase food production in India. In this research, we used India as a case study to quantify the effects of local (e. g,. fertilizer and irrigation) as well as global changes (e. g., climate, atmospheric carbon dioxide, tropospheric ozone, and nitrogen deposition) on spatial and temporal patterns of net primary production (NPP) and soil organic carbon storage during 1880–2010. We used a process based ecosystem model, the Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model (DLEM) in conjunction with local and global environmental factors mentioned above at 5-minutes grid resolution in India. This is the first quantification at national scale on the response of multifactor environmental changes on crop productivity and soil organic carbon storage during 1880–2010. Therefore, our results can be used for the environmental assessments as well as to formulate policies to protect the environment in India.