In this study, we used HYDRUS-1D software to simulate soil water and nitrate (NO 3 -N) transport in a rainfed wheat fi eld under various nitrogen (N) fertilizer scenarios (0 to 126 kg ha -1 ) in Morocco. We used inverse modeling to calibrate the input parameters involved in the simulation. The comparison between simulated and measured soil water (SWC) and NO 3 -N contents at different soil layers was carried out using the index of agreement (d), determination coeffi cient (R 2 ), RMSE, and MAE. By considering the soil profi le (0-100 cm), acceptable SWC simulation accuracies were obtained for the calibration and validation steps (d=0.88-0.94, R 2 =0.67 to 0.80, RMSE=0.034-0.051 cm 3 cm -3 , and MAE=0.024-0.038 cm 3 cm -3 ), while NO 3 -N simulation was less accurate (d=0.49-0.82, R 2 =0.20-0.58, RMSE=0.015-0.068 mg cm -3 , and MAE=0.012-0.046 mg cm -3 ). In addition, the observed NO 3 -N contents showed a lack of signifi cant differences in the root zone (20-100 cm) between N fertilizer rates (p>0.05), which was consistent with the lack of N fertilizer effects on simulated NO 3 -N leaching below the soil profi le by HYDRUS-1D. The NO 3 -N leached amount accounted for 25 kg ha -1 and was derived mainly from the initial soil N contents. The simulated N balance of the soil profi le revealed that volatilization and denitrifi cation were the major pathways of N fertilizer loss, accounting for about 3.8 and 51.7% of the N fertilizer rates, respectively. We suggest further studies to improve the simulation accuracies of HYDRUS-1D using suffi cient calibration data from long-term wheat experiments to ensure effective N fertilization management in the study area.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.