Abstract
Agricultural subsurface drainage changes the field hydrology and potentially the amount of water available to the crop by altering the flow path and the rate and timing of water removal. Evapotranspiration (ET) is normally among the largest components of the field water budget, and the changes in ET from the introduction of subsurface drainage are likely to have a greater influence on the overall water yield (surface runoff plus subsurface drainage) from subsurface drained (TD) fields compared to fields without subsurface drainage (UD). To test this hypothesis, we examined the impact of subsurface drainage on ET at two sites located in the Upper Midwest (North Dakota-Site 1 and South Dakota-Site 2) using the Landsat imagery-based METRIC (Mapping Evapotranspiration at high Resolution with Internalized Calibration) model. Site 1 was planted with corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max L.) during the 2009 and 2010 growing seasons, respectively. Site 2 was planted with corn for the 2013 growing season. During the corn growing seasons (2009 and 2013), differences between the total ET from TD and UD fields were less than 5 mm. For the soybean year (2010), ET from the UD field was 10% (53 mm) greater than that from the TD field. During the peak ET period from June to September for all study years, ET differences from TD and UD fields were within 15 mm (<3%). Overall, differences between daily ET from TD and UD fields were not statistically significant (p > 0.05) and showed no consistent relationship.
Highlights
Subsurface drainage systems are used to remove standing or excess water from agricultural soils to provide favorable plant growth conditions, improve timeliness of field operations and increase agricultural productivity
The objective of this study was to examine the impact of subsurface drainage on corn and soybean ET from two fields located in the Upper Midwest of the U.S using Landsat imagery and the METRIC (Mapping Evapotranspiration at high Resolution with Internalized Calibration) model
These results indicate that the August month has a greater potential of ET rates for both corn and years, the maximum EToF value of soybean was in August, at 1.11 and 1.08 for the subsurface drained (TD) and UD, soybean plants when provided with sufficient soil moisture
Summary
Subsurface drainage systems are used to remove standing or excess water from agricultural soils to provide favorable plant growth conditions, improve timeliness of field operations and increase agricultural productivity. The installation of subsurface drainage systems has continually increased in the U.S. In the late 1980s, about 17% of the U.S croplands were subsurface drained [2], and this increased to more than 23% in 2012 [3]. Crop Production in many areas of the Corn Belt of the U.S Upper Midwest would not be possible without subsurface drainage. Installation of subsurface drainage systems changes the flow paths of subsurface water and the rate and timing of water removal from the field altering the soil water balance from the field to the watershed scales
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