Location: Sustainable Water Management Research
Project Number: 6066-13000-006-014-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2021
End Date: Jul 31, 2025
Objective:
To improve existing models of the agroecosystem using data collected from multiple sites in typical humid subtropical cropping systems. Improved models will contribute to the understanding of the agroecosystem in the Lower Mississippi River Basin and allow for the more efficient use of water resources.
Approach:
To address Objective 7 of the project, data collected from numerous sites across the Mississippi Delta will be used to model the agroecosystem. Results assembled from various studies will provide data covering a wide diversity of soil types, climate variables, crop rotations, and crop production. Data are available from a number of sources such as soil moisture probes, water quality monitoring systems, a wide network of eddy covariance towers, and numerous weather stations across the Mississippi Delta. Models of the agroecosystem will be developed to improve resource management related to crop type, production practices, water use and other factors.
Using existing models, like SWAT, will reduce time needed to develop a new model for the region. To be applicable though, more validation and verification of parameters are needed which include factors and variables from the complete agricultural production process. This project will use data from humid subtropical regions in order to develop models which are directly applicable to the Lower Mississippi River Basin.
The cooperator will develop models using their own data and data provided by ARS. The models will be tested using historical data and results considered by both the cooperator and ARS. The improvement of existing models is expected to be an iterative process.
