Impacts of irrigation-climate interactions on crop yields in Arkansas Delta
Topics: Climatology and Meteorology
, Agricultural Geography
, Land Use and Land Cover Change
Keywords: Irrigation, Precipitation, Temperature, Cotton and Soybean yields, Arkansas Delta
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 7
Authors:
Yaqian He, University of Central Arkansas
Matthew H Connolly, University of Central Arkansas
Caden Rhodes, University of Central Arkansas
Rongting Xu, Oregon State University
Marisol Filares Arreguin, University of Central Arkansas
Xiao Huang, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Zhuosen Wang, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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Abstract
Irrigation has been widely implemented in the Arkansas Delta region as mitigation strategy to combat climate change and erratic rainfall. Irrigation in the confined geographic region like Arkansas Delta has likely affected heat and moisture fluxes at the land surface with possible effects on regional climate conditions. Irrigation unquestionably benefits crop yields with direct water effects. However, the resultant climate variabilities may greatly harm crop productivity, and the irrigation-climate interactions on Arkansas Delta crop yields remains unclear. In this study, we applied multiple satellite and climatic datasets to document the dynamic changes of irrigated and rainfed areas of cotton and soybean in Arkansas Delta from 2000 to 2020. More specifically, we assessed how such changes have influenced the regional climate, and how these resultant climate variabilities have affected cotton and soybean yields. Our findings show that the cotton and soybean irrigation in the Arkansas Delta leads to statistically insignificant precipitation changes and significant warming during the growing season of May to October from 2000 to 2020. This warming effect is presumably due to nighttime warming because of irrigation. Using a statistical crop yield model, we further demonstrate that such climate variabilities due to irrigation could enhance cotton and soybean yields of 8-40 pounds and 0.2-0.3 bushels per acre in addition to direct water contributions. Based on our results, we concluded that irrigation-climate interactions could add additional benefits to crop yields in Arkansas Delta, however continuous monitoring is needed, as the warming temperature exceeding threshold may be harmful to crop yields.
Impacts of irrigation-climate interactions on crop yields in Arkansas Delta
Category
Virtual Paper Abstract
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