Location: Wind Erosion and Water Conservation Research
2022 Annual Report
Accomplishments
1. Maximizing the irrigation productivity of the Ogallala aquifer in the U.S. Southern High Plains. The Ogallala aquifer under the Southern High Plains (SHP) is an important groundwater resource for U.S. cotton production, but because pumping rates exceed the aquifer’s recharge rates its water levels are steadily declining. To ensure that the aquifer’s remaining water is used productively, farmers need to know which irrigation practices use the aquifer’s water most efficiently in cotton production. To define the most efficient irrigation practices for SHP farmers, ARS scientists from Lubbock, Texas, conducted cotton crop model simulations in which the amount and timing of irrigation was independently varied during the growing season. These simulations showed that maximum irrigation water use efficiency, that is, the amount of lint yield produced per inch of applied irrigation, occurred when between 12 to 14 inches of irrigation was applied. Simulations that varied irrigation timing showed that when 12 inches was applied only during the cotton crop’s mid-stage reproductive and late-stage maturation periods, irrigation efficiency was increased even further. The results of this research provide important irrigation management guidelines that will allow SHP cotton producers to maximize the ‘crop per drop’ of the remaining groundwater of the southern Ogallala aquifer.
2. Dryland cotton lint yield as a function of rainfall in the U.S. Southern High Plains. Agriculture in the Southern High Plains (SHP) is shifting from producing crops with a diminishing supply of irrigation-water from the Ogallala aquifer to dryland cropping systems. To establish a relation between cotton lint yield and rainfall scientists at ARS in Lubbock, Texas, used county-level values of cotton lint yield and annual rainfall from 1972 to 2018. The ratio between cotton lint yield and rainfall is called crop water productivity (CWP). In our analysis we selected 16 counties from the SHP, including Martin, Glasscock, and Midland in the south and Cochran, Lubbock,and Hockley in the north. We speculate that results from these counties are precursors of future cotton production patterns that will emerge in the SHP. Our results showed that only 2011 – a record drought with 7 inches of rain – failed to produce a dryland cotton crop. The average cotton lint yield ranged from a high of 360 lb/acre in Lubbock County to a low of 225 lb/acre in Andrews County. However, the counties with the highest CWP of 19 lb/acre per inch of rain were in Glasscock, Midland and Martin County. We conclude that management production methods used by dryland producers in these counties represent the future schemes that need to be adopted to sustain the emerging dryland cropping systems across the SHP.
Review Publications
Li, J., Ravi, S., Wang, G., Van Pelt, R.S., Gill, T.E., Sankey, J.B. 2022. Woody plant encroachment of grassland and the reversibility of shrub dominance: Erosion, fire and feedback processes. Ecosphere. 13(3). Article e3949. http://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3949.
Thapa, V.R., Ghimire, R., Vanleewen, D., Acosta Martinez, V., Shukla, M. 2022. Response of soil organic matter to cover cropping in water-limited environments. Geoderma. 406. Article 115497. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2021.115497.
Lascano, R.J., Payton, P.R., Mahan, J.R., Goebel, T.S., Gitz, D.C. 2022. Annual rainfall and dryland cotton lint yield - Southern High Plains of Texas. Agricultural Sciences. 13:177-200. https://doi.org/10.4236/as.2022.132014.
Bergh, E.L., Calderon, F.J., Clemensen, A.K., Durso, L.M., Eberly, J.O., Halvorson, J.J., Jin, V.L., Margenot, A.J., Stewart, C.E., Van Pelt, R.S., Liebig, M.A. 2022. Time in a bottle: Use of soil archives for understanding long-term soil change. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 86(3):520-527. https://doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20372.
Edwards, B.L., Webb, N.P., Van Zee, J.W., Courtright, E.M., Cooper, B.F., Metz, L., Herrick, J.E., Okin, G., Duniway, M.C., Tatarko, J., Tedela, N., Newingham, B.A., Pierson Jr, F.B., Toledo, D.N., Van Pelt, R.S. 2021. Parameterizing an aeolian erosion model for rangelands. Aeolian Research. 54.Article 100769. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aeolia.2021.100769.
Mauget, S.A., Ulloa, M., Mitchell-Mccallister, D. 2022. Simulated irrigation water productivity and related profit effects in U.S. Southern High Plains cotton production. Agricultural Water Management. 266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2022.107582.
Eibedingil, I.G., Gill, T.E., Van Pelt, R.S., Tong, D.Q. 2021. Comparison of aerosol optical depth product from MODIS product collection 6.1 and AERONET in the western United States. Remote Sensing. 13(12):2316. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13122316.
Eibedingil, I.G., Gill, T.E., Van Pelt, R.S., Tong, D.Q. 2021. Combining optical and radar satellite imagery to investigate the surface properties and evolution of the Lordsburg Playa, New Mexico, USA. Remote Sensing. 13(17):3402. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13173402.
Baker, J.T., Lascano, R.J., Yates, C.E., Gitz, D.C. 2022. Nighttime CO2 enrichment did not increase leaf area or shoot biomass in cotton seedlings. Agriculture and Forest Meteorology. 320. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2022.108931.
