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This is the AmeriFlux Management Project (AMP) created FLUXNET-1F version of the carbon flux data for the site US-CS1 Central Sands Irrigated Agricultural Field. This is the FLUXNET version of the carbon flux data for the site US-CS1 Central Sands Irrigated Agricultural Field produced by applying the standard ONEFlux (1F) software. Site Description - Heartland Farms Center-Pivot Irrigated Potato Field
This is the AmeriFlux Management Project (AMP) created FLUXNET-1F version of the carbon flux data for the site US-CS3 Central Sands Irrigated Agricultural Field. This is the FLUXNET version of the carbon flux data for the site US-CS3 Central Sands Irrigated Agricultural Field produced by applying the standard ONEFlux (1F) software. Site Description - Heartland Farms Center-Pivot Irrigated Potato Field
This is the AmeriFlux Management Project (AMP) created FLUXNET-1F version of the carbon flux data for the site US-CS4 Central Sands Irrigated Agricultural Field. This is the FLUXNET version of the carbon flux data for the site US-CS4 Central Sands Irrigated Agricultural Field produced by applying the standard ONEFlux (1F) software. Site Description - Heartland Farms Center-Pivot Irrigated Potato Field
This is the AmeriFlux Management Project (AMP) created FLUXNET-1F version of the carbon flux data for the site US-CS5 Central Sands Irrigated Agricultural Field. This is the FLUXNET version of the carbon flux data for the site US-CS5 Central Sands Irrigated Agricultural Field produced by applying the standard ONEFlux (1F) software. Site Description - Heartland Farms Center-Pivot Irrigated Potato Field
This is the AmeriFlux Management Project (AMP) created FLUXNET-1F version of the carbon flux data for the site US-CS6 Central Sands Irrigated Agricultural Field. This is the FLUXNET version of the carbon flux data for the site US-CS6 Central Sands Irrigated Agricultural Field produced by applying the standard ONEFlux (1F) software. Site Description - Worzella Farms Center-Pivot Irrigated Potato Field
This is the AmeriFlux Management Project (AMP) created FLUXNET-1F version of the carbon flux data for the site US-CS8 Central Sands Irrigated Agricultural Field. This is the FLUXNET version of the carbon flux data for the site US-CS8 Central Sands Irrigated Agricultural Field produced by applying the standard ONEFlux (1F) software. Site Description - Worzella Farms Center-Pivot Irrigated Potato Field
This study investigates potential economic and groundwater driven transitions from irrigated maize production—the dominant irrigated cropping system in the High Plains Aquifer (HPA) region—to alternative crops such as sorghum and switchgrass, two common bioenergy feedstocks. Unsustainable groundwater extraction in the U.S. High Plains presents critical challenges including reduced irrigation capacities, diminished crop yields, lower land values, and escalating energy costs. Using a spatially explicit optimization framework combined with comprehensive economic and hydrogeological data, we evaluate optimal land-use strategies and irrigation system investments over a 30-year planning period. Results indicate significant regional variability in the future economic viability of irrigated agriculture, driven by differences in aquifer recharge rates, groundwater availability, and market conditions. Nebraska and parts of northern Texas can sustain irrigated maize profitability due to relatively favorable groundwater conditions and lower land rents, respectively. In contrast, many portions of Kansas and southern Texas are more likely to transition to dryland agriculture within two decades. Colorado and New Mexico show potential for significant adoption of switchgrass production as an alternative biomass-based energy crop. Overall, over the 30-year horizon, our model implies that approximately 23% of currently irrigated maize area across the HPA region may transition to dryland farming under business-as-usual conditions. This transition is complemented by a threefold increase in non-irrigated sorghum production, from 0.20 to 0.77 Mt yr−1, indicating that groundwater-driven shifts in agricultural production may support a larger regional base for bioenergy feedstocks. The study also reveals opportunities for producers to optimize economic returns and biomass production potential.
This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-CS1 Central Sands Irrigated Agricultural Field. Site Description - Heartland Farms Center-Pivot Irrigated Potato Field
This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-CS4 Central Sands Irrigated Agricultural Field. Site Description - Heartland Farms Center-Pivot Irrigated Potato Field
This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-CS5 Central Sands Irrigated Agricultural Field. Site Description - Heartland Farms Center-Pivot Irrigated Potato Field
This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-CS6 Central Sands Irrigated Agricultural Field. Site Description - Worzella Farms Center-Pivot Irrigated Potato Field
This is the AmeriFlux version of the carbon flux data for the site US-CS8 Central Sands Irrigated Agricultural Field. Site Description - Worzella Farms Center-Pivot Irrigated Potato Field
Environmental problems and production losses associated with irrigated agriculture, such as salinity, degradation of receiving waters, such as rivers, and deep percolation of saline water to aquifers, highlight water-quality concerns that require a paradigm shift in resource-management policy. New tools are needed to assist environmental managers in developing sustainable solutions to these problems, given the nonpoint source nature of salt loads to surface water and groundwater from irrigated agriculture. Equity issues arise in distributing responsibility and costs to the generators of this source of pollution. This paper describes an alternative approach to salt regulation and control using the concept of “Real-Time Water Quality management”. The approach relies on a continually updateable WARMF (Watershed Analysis Risk Management Framework) forecasting model to provide daily estimates of salt load assimilative capacity in the San Joaquin River and assessments of compliance with salinity concentration objectives at key monitoring sites on the river. The results of the study showed that the policy combination of well-crafted river salinity objectives by the regulator and the application of an easy-to use and maintain decision support tool by stakeholders have succeeded in minimizing water quality (salinity) exceedances over a 20-year study period.
Globally, riverine deltas comprise barely 1% of land area, but they support the livelihoods of more than 500 million people (Moorhouse et al., 2021). The Asian megadeltas (e.g., Indus, Bengal, Mekong, Red River, and Yangtze) and their riverine floodplains are the most dynamic economic and environmental systems in the world. These low-lying coastal landforms support surface water bodies and highly productive aquifer systems. However, water resources of the Asian megadeltas are extremely vulnerable to geogenic (e.g., arsenic) and anthropogenic (e.g., bacteria) contamination, increased water salinisation from rising sea levels (Figure 1), and chemicals (e.g., fertilizers, pesticides) from land-use practices (Mukherjee et al., 2024) – all of which are threatening the sustainability of water supply and food security in the region. This Research Topic collection features five original articles that explore water chemistry including arsenic and bacteriological contamination, water salinisation, water-energy-food nexus in irrigated agriculture, and groundwater depletion resulting from irrigation, rapid urbanization, and climate change. Although the Research Topic collection does not include case studies from all the Asian Megadeltas shown in Figure 1, the relevance of multi-hazard driven water risks to all deltaic and river floodplain environments around the world is well-illustrated.
Agricultural irrigation has experienced rapid expansion, and its growing freshwater consumption is potentially exacerbating water scarcity issues. Previous studies predominantly relied on observations or land-only simulations, often neglecting land–atmosphere interactions or failing to capture long-term evolution. We therefore analyse the effects of historical irrigation expansion on water fluxes and resources using seven Earth system models. Here we show that irrigation expansion in many regions substantially decreases the net water influx from the atmosphere to land, further aggravating the existing drying trends caused by climate change. For example, irrigation expansion changed the trend of this net influx from −0.664 ( ± 0.283) to −1.461 ( ± 0.261) mm yr −2 in South Asia after 1960. Consequently, the local terrestrial water storage depletion rate is substantially enlarged by irrigation expansion (for example, from −2.559 ( ± 0.094) to −16.008 ( ± 0.557) mm yr −1 ). Our results attribute the land water loss to irrigation expansion and climate change, calling for immediate solutions to tackle the negative trends.
Given a rising demand for quality assurance, rather than solely yield, supplemental irrigation plays an important role to ensure the viability and profitability of vegetable crops from unpredictable changes in weather. However, under drought conditions, agricultural irrigation is often given low priority for water allocation. This reduced water availability for agriculture calls for techniques with greater irrigation efficiency, that do not compromise crop quality and yield, and that provide economic benefit for producers. This study developed vegetable growing models for eight different vegetable crops (bush bean, green bean, cabbage, peppermint, spearmint, yellow straight neck squash, zucchini, and bell pepper) based on data from several years of field research. The ALMANAC model accurately simulated yields and water use efficiency (WUE) of all eight vegetables. The developed vegetable models were used to evaluate the effects of various irrigation regimes on vegetable growth and production in several locations in the Winter Garden Region of Texas, under variable weather conditions. Based on our simulation results from 960 scenarios, optimal irrigation amounts that produce high yield as well as reasonable economic profit to producers were determined for each vegetable crop. Overall, yields for all vegetables increased as irrigation amounts increased. However, irrigation amounts did not have a sustainable impact on vegetable yield at high irrigation treatments, and the WUEs of most vegetables were not significantly different among various irrigation regimes. When vegetable yields were compared with water cost, the rate decreased as irrigation amounts increased. Thus, producers will not receive economic benefits when vegetable irrigation water demand is too high.
Abstract Climate modeling studies and observations do not fully agree on the implications of anthropogenic warming for evapotranspiration (ET), a major component of the water cycle and driver of irrigation water demand. Here, we use California as a testbed to assess the ET impacts of changing atmospheric conditions induced by climate change on irrigated systems. Our analysis of irrigated agricultural and urban regions shows that warmer atmospheric temperatures have minimal implications for ET rates and irrigation water demands—about one percent change per degree Celsius warming (∼1% °C −1 ). By explicitly modeling irrigation, we control for the confounding effect of climate‐driven soil moisture changes and directly estimate water demand implications. Our attribution analysis of the drivers of ET response to global anthropogenic warming shows that as the atmospheric temperature and vapor pressure deficit depart from the ideal conditions for transpiration, regulation of stomata resistance by stressed vegetation almost completely offsets the expected increase in ET rates that would otherwise result from abiotic processes alone. We further show that anthropogenic warming of the atmosphere has minimal implications for mean relative humidity (<1.7% °C −1 ) and the surface available energy (<0.2% °C −1 ), which are critical drivers of ET. This study corroborates the growing evidence that plant physiological changes moderate the degree to which changes in potential ET are realized as actual ET.
Groundwater depletion caused by intensive pumping for irrigated agriculture is a global threat to economies, food security, and ecosystems. Pumping reductions are required to confront this threat, but their implementation is a “wicked” problem due to interlinked hydrological, social, and economic factors. In the US High Plains Aquifer, an irrigator-led conservation effort known as the Sheridan 6 Local Enhanced Management Area (SD-6 LEMA) is a rare example of successful collective action in agricultural-groundwater systems. In its first decade, the area has exceeded water use reduction goals and decreased depletion rates by over 50% without significantly affecting net income. In this Perspective, we highlight factors underlying the SD-6 LEMA’s effectiveness, and identify transferable governance tenets for other groundwater dependent regions striving for sustainable management of groundwater resources. These tenets include flexibility through multi-year allocations, regulatory oversight to support the irrigators’ plans, and a strong scientific foundation for sustainable agricultural-groundwater systems.