SimTraces : A Numerical simulator for predicting the accumulation of Trace Elements (TE's) by crops
Résumé
Accumulation of soil trace elements by cultivated plants is a threat for food and feed quality but on the other hand, it is also a valuable solution for cleaning-up polluted soils. In order to guarantee the quality of crops or to optimize phytoextraction, it is necessary to identify the key mechanisms that govern the geochemistry of the trace elements in soils, their uptake by a growing root system and their partitioning between plant organs. The main objective of the SimTrace project is to integrate all the key mechanisms governing the accumulation of trace elements in plant parts into a simulation model that also considers the environmental conditions of the crop : climate, and agricultural practices. Besides being a scientific tool, the simulation model should allow farmers and environmental stakeholders not only to assess the risk that crops do not comply the regulations for their content in trace elements but also to test scenarios of agricultural practices in order i) to make the crops comply with the regulation and ii) to optimize the phytoextraction of trace elements from polluted soils by dedicated crops. SimTraces is a research project dedicated to be transferred to applications in the field. It has been coordinated by UMR 1391 INRA ISPA (Ch. Nguyen). It relied on a scientific consortium of five INRA groups (UMR ISPA Bordeaux, LSE Nancy, PSH, Agroclim and BioSP, Avignon). The project started in January 2012 and lasted four years and a half. SimTraces was funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) (448 810€) and the total cost was around 2 663 964€.