A geospatial assessment of soil properties to identify the potential for crop rotation in rice systems

Abstract

Crop rotation is one strategy for adapting agroecosystems to a framework that balances ecological diversity, sustainability, and food production. The Sacramento Valley, one of the most productive rice growing regions in the US, faces sustainability challenges including increasing herbicide resistant weed pressure and water use restrictions. Increasing crop diversity may help address these challenges, but this region has unique soil attributes including high clay content, salinity, alkalinity, and cemented subsurface layers, and the degree to which these soil properties influence crop rotation decisions remain unclear. The objectives of this study were to quantify the extent of crop rotation in this region, compare soil properties for rotated and continuous rice fields, and assess the potential for expanding rotations based on the geographic coverage of influential soil variables. Using satellite derived land cover data for 2007–2021, our analysis shows that only ∼5000 ha are in rotation with rice, while 220,000 ha are in continuous rice production. This land cover information is fused with SSURGO soil maps in a spatial random forest model. The modeling approach indicates that fields with soil pH between 6.5 and 8, EC between 0.5 and 2 (ds m-1), and saturated hydraulic conductivity less than 2 (μm s-1) are more likely to be rotated. However, we estimate that only 11% of the continuous rice area has all three of these soil properties combined, suggesting soil limitations are an important constraint. This research highlights a method for evaluating land use decisions in relation to spatial variability of soil properties to better understand barriers to agroecological diversification.