Project : USDA ARS

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Research Project: Agricultural Water Management in Poorly Drained Midwestern Agroecosystems

2022 Annual Report

Objectives
The overall objective of this project is to address the hydrologic, biogeochemical, and ecological processes and impacts of crop production agriculture and conservation practices in the poorly drained Midwestern US while sustaining increased productivity. Specific objectives include: Objective 1: Develop technology to identify the location and density of tile drainage systems. Objective 2: Characterize the coupling of hydrologic and chemical/biogeochemical processes in tile drained landscapes and its impact on water quality in the Mississippi River and Western Lake Erie Basins. Objective 3: Develop water management and treatment technologies for subsurface drainage that provide strategies to help farmers, ranchers, and other land managers adapt to climate variability and change at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Objective 4: As part of the LTAR network, and in concert with similar long-term, land-based research infrastructure in the Midwest region, use the Eastern Corn Belt LTAR site to improve the observational capabilities and data accessibility of the LTAR network and support research to sustain or enhance agricultural production and environmental quality in agroecosystems characteristic of the Midwest region. Research and data collection are planned and implemented based on the LTAR site application and in accordance with the responsibilities outlined in the LTAR Shared Research Strategy, a living document that serves as a roadmap for LTAR implementation. Participation in the LTAR network includes research and data management in support of the ARS GRACEnet and/or Livestock GRACEnet projects.

Approach
Water quantity and quality continue to be major natural resource concerns in the United States. As the pressure to produce more food, feed, fiber and fuel from our agricultural lands increases, the need for protecting soil and water resources and ecosystem services within poorly drained watersheds accelerates exponentially. In the Midwestern United States, excess water is rapidly removed through subsurface drainage and agricultural drainage ditches to facilitate agricultural crop production. Excessive levels of nutrients exported with drainage water from agricultural landscapes contribute to downstream algal blooms and hypoxic zones. Sediment, nutrient and pesticide mixtures found in waterways adjacent to agricultural production may also disrupt stream ecosystem function and have deleterious effects on aquatic biota. Information on the primary transport pathways of nutrients and the temporal delivery through these pathways at the field and watershed scales is sparse. Conservation practices (i.e., 4Rs, cover crops, drainage water management, grassed filter strips) are being implemented at a rapid rate across many watersheds to mitigate the effects of agricultural production, but their effectiveness has not been fully evaluated. The research consists of location specific and cross location research projects that investigate the impacts of agricultural land use, production management, and conservation practices on edge-of-field water quality (surface and subsurface flow pathways) and aquatic biota. Additionally, technologies and approaches to address these issues under a changing climate will be evaluated. The research will primarily be conducted in three high priority watersheds in Ohio: 1) Upper Big Walnut Creek; 2) Grand Lake St. Mary; and 3) Western Lake Erie Basin. Understanding the watershed scale transport pathways, timing, and ecological impact within these agricultural landscapes will facilitate the identification, design, and implementation of conservation practices to mitigate or reduce the environmental impact of agricultural land use

Progress Report
This is the final report for this project which terminated in March 2022. See the report for the replacement project, 5080-13210-003-00D, “Practices and Technologies for Sustainable Production in Midwestern Tile Drained Agroecosystems” for additional information. Objective 1: An unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) mounted with visible, multispectral (green, red, red edge, near infrared), and thermal infrared cameras continued to be tested for mapping subsurface drainage systems at sites in Ohio. This large amount of accumulated imagery is providing insight on field conditions under which UAV imagery does and does not work regarding location of buried agricultural drainage pipes. A manuscript was submitted and accepted for publication in Agricultural Water Management, which describe results of a study assessing applicability for using UAV thermal infrared (TIR) imagery to locate subsurface drainage system outlets in ditches and streams. Because crop establishment and health are often best over drain lines, a separate study continues focused on determining if UAV imagery (visible, multispectral, and/or thermal infrared), collected during the early, middle and late growing season, can provide insight on subsurface drainage system patterns. Objective 2: The effect of recent phosphorus fertilizer applications on edge-of-field water quality continues to be analyzed using an advanced statistical approach (weighted regression on discharge, and season). The analysis quantifies the relative contributions of recently applied P fertilizer and legacy soil phosphorus to phosphorus export at the edge-of-field and will translate findings into predictive models for characterization of phosphorus export at the field scale. A manuscript is currently under peer-review, and data analysis is on-going towards development of a second manuscript. Experiments examining nitrogen and phosphorus uptake in tile drain flowpaths on two-stage ditch floodplains during two seasons (spring and summer) have been completed. Data processing of the data has been completed and statistical analyses are on-going with draft publication targeted for later this year. Progress continues to be made on quantifying nitrogen and phosphorus uptake, as well as ecosystem metabolism (i.e., gross primary production and ecosystem respiration), in streams adjacent to agricultural fields with a gradient of historical management practices. Multiple nutrient uptake experiments at each stream site have been completed. Additionally, logging oxygen sensors were deployed at each stream site in winter 2021 and retrieved at the end of summer 2021. Ecosystem metabolism will be quantified and metrics of both GPP and ER will be correlated with nutrient uptake metrics in each stream site. Objective 3: Drainage water management as a practice to address water quality was assessed and a manuscript summarizing findings from two paired edge-of-field sites was submitted and published. Additionally, a replicated field experiment testing the effects of controlled drainage along with subsurface tile drain depth and spacing on discharge and N and P losses, as well as crop yields, was completed. Statistical analyses are nearing completion and a manuscript will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal in the next year. Through collaboration with university partners, simulation technologies are being improved to more accurately capture the effects of drainage water management and quantify its ability to address water quality in the Lake Erie watershed. In collaboration with ARS in West Lafayette, Indiana, progress continues to be made in assessing field scale phosphorus removal structures and different filter media. Three different structures are currently being assessed for their ability to reduce soluble phosphorus loss originating in tile drainage. Objective 4: Progress continues on the conservation effects assessment project (CEAP) and the Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) common experiment. Nitrogen and phosphorus mass balances have been completed for 30 fields in the EOF network to evaluate the effects of conservation cropping on nutrient accumulation in the soil profile and nutrient losses. Statistical analyses have been completed and a draft publication will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal later this year. The Soil Drainage Research Unit is coordinating an update and advancement of the data inventory of LTAR soils measurements. A data attribute collection tool was developed and deployed to gather additional relevant information on soils measurements across all 18 LTAR locations. Results will be compiled and made available to LTAR scientists to facilitate cross-site research projects. All ecology related milestones within the project plan were met. The importance of these research results are supported by a recent published literature review (Lizotte et al. 2021) that identified that the majority of available information from 2000 to 2020 on the ecological effects of conservation practices is derived from CEAP ecology research conducted in the three CEAP watersheds (Upper Big Walnut Creek, Ohio; Saint Joseph River, Indiana, Beasley Lake, Mississippi). ARS scientists (Columbus, Ohio), ARS NSERL scientists (West Lafayette, Indiana), and Purdue University Fort Wayne (Fort Wayne, Indiana) faculty members plan to continue their collaboration in the next 5 year research cycle by using a 14 year database of physical habitat, water chemistry, and fishes to identify the environmental variables that best predict fish biodiversity and abundance in channelized agricultural headwater streams in the Midwestern United States. Collaboration will also continue through the writing of peer review manuscripts that include peer review manuscripts to document: 1) the best environmental predictors of crayfish biodiversity and abundance in agricultural headwater streams; 2) survival, morphologic, and physiological responses of fishes to exposure to mixtures of nutrients and pesticides; and 3) the relationships of air temperature and precipitation with fish biodiversity in agricultural headwater streams over a 14 year period. Additionally, an ARS Scientist (Columbus, Ohio) has completed a 17 year assessment of the ecological effects of grass filter strips on the physical habitat, water chemistry, and biota within agricultural headwater streams. A recent analysis of the snake research component this year has confirmed that the use of artificial cover objects (i.e., cover boards) composed of wood are more effective for capturing snakes than artificial cover objects composed of tinThe effort now focuses on the publication of peer review papers sharing information on the fish, amphibian, and snake responses to planting grass filter strips adjacent to channelized agricultural headwater streams as well as a paper on the factors influencing the effectiveness of cover boards in capturing snakes from riparian corridors of agricultural headwater streams. Project: Generally, the objectives and hypotheses outlined in the project plan were substantially met. Significant progress and deliverables were made on: 1) developing approaches and technologies for identifying the location and density of tile drainage; 2) understanding and characterizing the biogeochemical processes in tile drained landscapes; 3) assessing conservation practices, treatments and management strategies for addressing water quality; and 4) contributing to network science through the Long-Term Agroecosystem Research network. This project has reached its termination date and has been replaced by 5080-13210-003-000D.

Accomplishments
1. Drainage water management for addressing nutrient loss in tile drained landscapes of Northwest Ohio are effective for nitrogen but mixed for phosphorus. The binational agreement between the U.S. and Canada calls for a 40% reduction in phosphorus loadings within the Western Lake Erie Basin (WLEB). Millions of federal (NRCS) and state (H2Ohio Initiative) dollars have been set aside to promote adoption and widespread implementation of conservation practices to meet the 40% reduction goals. One promoted practice is drainage water management (DWM), also known as controlled drainage. However, the efficacy and efficiency of DWM to address phosphorus in tile drainage is limited. ARS scientists in Columbus, Ohio assessed the ability of DWM to address nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) loss in private farm fields located within the WLEB watershed. Drainage water management was effective for N mitigation, but the effects on P were mixed because reductions in tile drainage P loss were minimal and were partially negated with increases in surface losses. The findings have been shared and delivered to NRCS, the State of Ohio-Ohio Department of Agriculture, and Lake Erie stakeholders (e.g., The Nature Conservancy, Farm Bureau, and producers) and will be used to inform conservation policy.

2. Subsurface drainage outlet detection in ditches and streams with UAV thermal infrared imagery. Environmental risk assessment of agricultural subsurface drainage practices can benefit from knowing drainage system outlet locations along ditches and streams. ARS scientists in Columbus, Ohio evaluated drainage outlet detection using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) thermal infrared (TIR) surveys at five sites in Ohio with a range of waterway sizes. Drainage outlets were detected in a drainage ditch and small stream, but not in moderate and larger streams. Drainage outlet detection was subtle (~ 1 degree C), and could change due to outside temperature conditions. Since other factors may produce waterway thermal responses having the same magnitude as a drainage outlet, the use of UAV TIR imagery as a means to map drainage system outlet locations might not be completely practical. However, results do indicate that if an outlet can be detected, UAV TIR surveys may be useful for evaluating the drainage outlet hydrologic impact on a ditch or stream, which could be of substantial benefit to watershed environmental coordinators.

3. Relationships between soil health and edge-of-field water quality are limited. Soil health and water quality improvement are major goals of sustainable agricultural management systems, yet the connections between soil health and water quality impacts remain unclear. ARS scientists in Columbus, Ohio in collaboration with Ohio State University partners developed relationships of soil health indicators with water quality and improved a water quality model’s representation of soil health properties. A few select soil health indicators were associated with greater nutrient losses (e.g., soils with higher water extractable carbon and nitrogen were associated with higher nitrate losses), while most other soil properties were found to be not consistently related to water quality outcomes. Additionally, improvements were made to the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to represent changes in soil health properties resulting from no-till and cover crops. The modifications to the model on the effects of soil properties such as organic matter content and water holding capacity resulted in reduced predicted amounts of nitrogen and total phosphorus entering Lake Erie, but increased dissolved reactive phosphorus. However, predicted direct effects of cover crops and no till practices on water quality were much greater than the modifications to soil properties. The research findings are being used by extension and NRCS in outreach efforts that promote soil health in Ohio and regionally. Furthermore, improved representation of no-till and cover crop practices in the SWAT model could be used to improve the model’s ability to assess the regional effects of conservation practices on soil health and water quality.

4. Tolerance of larval insects to elevated stream conductivity levels. Elevated stream conductivity levels are a water quality issue globally that can impact stream insects. However, information on the tolerance and morphological responses of stream insects is lacking for many taxa, especially those that occur in remote mountain streams. ARS scientists at Columbus, Ohio in collaboration with Ohio State University scientists conducted field bioassays with larval stoneflies in mountain streams in China using salinity levels representative of those in freshwater streams and higher levels expected in brackish water estuaries. Survivorship to elevated salinity levels was stonefly family specific. Additionally, changes in the morphology of chloride cells that function to remove excess salt was observed only in the stonefly family that exhibited the greatest salinity tolerance. These findings represent the first report of stonefly responses to elevated conductivity levels. Our novel results will be used to understand how anthropogenic increases in conductivity can affect aquatic invertebrates. These results will be of interest to state agencies, federal agencies, private consulting companies, and non-profits involved with the management of agricultural headwater streams in the United States because they indicate that stoneflies, an commonly used water quality indicator, may not be a good indicator of the impacts of anthropogenic increases in stream conductivity.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Soil Drainage Research: Columbus, OH