An Overview of Crop and Crop Residue Management Impacts on Crop Water Use and Runoff in the Canadian Prairies

Jian Liu,David A Lobb

doi:10.3390/w13202929

Abstract

Although crop and crop residue management practices are mainly used for increasing crop yield, they and the resulting changes in crop growth affect one or more hydrological components, including runoff. Based on published research in the Canadian Prairies, this paper reviews the effects of crop type, quantity of crops and crop residues, crop variability within landscapes, tillage, and stubble management practices on crop water use (termed including evaporation, transpiration and interception), snow trapping, and water infiltration, with the aim to discuss major impacts of crop and residue management on runoff. Rainfall runoff is influenced by rain interception and crop water use, and it can be reduced by choosing appropriate crop types, increasing above-ground biomass, or increasing coverage on the soil surface, activities which coincide with the farmer’s efforts of increasing crop productivity. However, although high stubble and reduced tillage for maintaining good residue cover help conserve soil moisture and improve soil health, they increase snowmelt runoff potential. The review emphasizes the need of future research to assess the agronomic and environmental trade-offs of crop residue management, the linkage between crop water use and runoff, and the impacts of crop and residue management on runoff across various temporal and spatial scales.

Highlights

In the Canadian Prairies, both rainfall and snowfall derive runoff, and runoff generation can be affected by growing crops and crop residues through their involvement in the processes of interception, transpiration, evaporation, snow trapping, melt and sublimation, and water infiltration (Figure 1)
The analyses here and above suggest that runoff can be reduced by increasing crops’ use of water, which can be achieved by choosing appropriate crop types and/or increasing crop production
Through the analysis of published studies that have documented the impacts of crop and crop residue management on rain interception, evaporation, transpiration, snow trapping, water infiltration and runoff, this review demonstrates that crop and residue management have high potential to affect the hydrological cycle and runoff

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Many of the practices related to crop and crop residue management, such as crop rotation, stubble management and conservation tillage, are mainly used in order to improve soil and crop productivity, these practices impact various hydrological processes, i.e., rain interception, transpiration, evaporation, snow trapping, water infiltration, and runoff. The relevant past field research in the Canadian Prairies has mostly focused on understanding management impacts on soil water availability and crop production [6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15], with limited direct linkage to snowmelt [16,17,18,19] or rainfall runoff [3,17,20,21,22]. Given the overall lack of research directly addressing the crop–hydrology relationship, the review aims to identify some of the related knowledge gaps and research needs for developing field-level options for managing runoff

An Overview of How Crops and Crop Residues Affect the Hydrological Cycle

Impacts of Crop

Impacts of Crop and Residue Management on Water Infiltration

Impacts of Crop and Residue Management on Runoff

Findings

Concluding Remarks