Location: Delta Water Management Research
Project Number: 6024-13000-004-025-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Mar 15, 2023
End Date: Mar 14, 2028
Objective:
1. Quantify nutrient and sediment losses in surface water runoff in field managed under conventional and conservation cropping and water management practices with and without cover cropping.
2. Compare greenhouse gas (methane, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide) emissions and yield-scaled global warming potential from conventional and conservation cropping systems.
3. Asses the impacts of conservation practices on lint yield under irrigated and non-irrigated cropping.
Approach:
Multiple conservation practices such as cover cropping, minimum tillage, vegetative buffer strip and conventional cropping practice will be implemented in the long-term field. We will use the vented flux chamber technique to measure fluxes of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane from cotton fields. Samples collected with static vented chambers will be analyzed for atmospheric gases using a gas chromatograph equipped with three detectors for quantifying atmospheric trace gas concentrations. These measurements will take place in long-term fields under rainfed and furrow irrigation practices. Water quality metrics will be measured from runoff water samples collected using automated ISCO samplers while lint yields will be estimated from harvest area using machine harvester.