EVALUATION OF DOWNSTREAM AND ECOSYSTEM WATER QUALITY AND QUANTITY THROUGH TARGETING CONSERVATION PRACTICES IN MISSISSIPPI.

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1000975
• Grant No.: 2013-67020-21407
• Cumulative Award Amt.: $430,000.00
• Proposal No.: 2013-02746
• Project Start Date: Sep 1, 2013
• Project End Date: Aug 31, 2018
• Grant Year: 2013
• Program Code: [A1401]- Foundational Program: Soil Health

Recipient Organization
MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIV
(N/A)
MISSISSIPPI STATE,MS 39762

Performing Department
Ag & Bio Engineering

Non Technical Summary
Deterioration of surface-ground water quality and quantity are a potential threat to agricultural and environmental sustainability in the Mississippi delta. Surface-ground water quality degradation is a function of many factors, with crucial drivers including agricultural production, human activities and climate variability. Conservation practices have been implemented to improve surface-ground water resources in the Mississippi delta, however the downstream water quality and quantity impacts of these practices have not been quantified. Evaluation of these practices requires knowledge of surface-ground water interactions, pollutant transport process, and their spatial distributions within watershed ecosystems. This study is expected to assess surface-ground water interaction, climate variability, and future land use change impact scenarios to improve water quality through targeting of conservation practices within the Big Sunflower River Watershed in Mississippi. Both field observed and geospatial data for the watershed will be used with computational models such as the USDA supported Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), Annualized Agricultural Non-Point Source Pollution (AnnAGNPS), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) supported three dimensional Modular Flow (MODFLOW) model with current farm package module, and EPA supported Modular 3-D Transport Model-Multi-Species (MT3DMS) a 3D contaminant transport model. Several extension and educational activities are included to educate students, watershed stakeholders, producers, and minorities through workshop, research, and international partnerships.

Animal Health Component

70%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

15%

Applied

70%

Developmental

15%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
112	0320	2050	70%
111	0399	2060	30%

Knowledge Area
112 - Watershed Protection and Management; 111 - Conservation and Efficient Use of Water;

Subject Of Investigation
0320 - Watersheds; 0399 - Watersheds and river basins, general;

Field Of Science
2050 - Hydrology; 2060 - Geography;

Keywords

surface water

ground water

modeling

Goals / Objectives
The major goal of this project is to evaluate downstream and ecosystem surface-ground water interaction through targeting conservation practices with climate variability and landuse change at the agricultural watershed-scale. The specific objectives will include: (1) Evaluate transport processes of sediment, nutrient and fecal coliform bacteria in conjunction with field observed data and conservation practices using surface-ground hydrologic and water quality models. (2) Evaluate sensitivity of conservation practices on downstream surface-ground water quality and quantity due to future climate variability and land use changes. (3) Develop extension programs to educate watershed stakeholders, minorities, youth, and farmers on surface-ground water quality and quantity improvement processes through workshop, research, and extension.

Project Methods
Surface water quality will be grabbed from three USGS stream flow monitoring locations within the BSRW. These three sampling locations represent the spatial distribution of the watershed hydrologic conditions of the BSRW. An additional water quality samples will be collected in the second and third years from the farm with in the watershed where support will be provided to implement conservation practices during the project implementation process. All the field collected samples will be analyzed (TSS, TP, TN, total fecal coliform bacteria) using standard methods. Field monitored and locally available surface and ground water wells data (e.g. water level, flow velocity, saturated hydraulic conductivities) will be utilized to calibrate and validate surface-ground water models. A field survey will be conducted to identify and verify locations of spatially distributed field specific conservation practices in the watershed. A downscaling technique such as stochastic weather generator will be used to develop future climate change scenarios with future land use change to use in the surface-ground water models. The economic analysis will be conducted to determine the comparative farm-gate breakeven price for the potential major crops grown and conservation practices that producers will be interested to implement instead of the current major crop rotation (e.g. corn-soybean). A simple and unique web-based tool to display project results for the watershed will be developed through the web-based html user interface in the public domain. Project extension and focus group discussion meetings will be conducted in the year 1 and 2 to introduce project and discuss more focus target audience based survey. workshops on "Conservation Practices, Climate Variability and Water Quality Consortium"will be conducted in the year 3.In addition, activities will be conducted toeducate students at Mississippi State University on water quality research. Educational activities will include a seminar series and in-class group projects during one to three years of the project.

Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/18

Outputs
Target Audience:Watershed stakeholders, faculty, and students Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Research opportunities have been provided to graduate student in the areas of surface and ground water modeling and analysis work and writing manuscripts, which is expected to help enhance their professional capacity. Xiaojing Ni, PhD student in Biological Engineering (Graduated, Summer 2018) Dissertation: Evaluation of impacts of conservation practices on surface water and groundwater at watershed scale Abdullah O. Dakhlalla. PhD student in Biological Engineering (Graduated, Spring 2016) Dissertation: Assessing the impacts of climate and land use changes on water quantity and quality in Mississippi Trey Robinson, MS student (non-thesis) in Engineering Technology, (Graduated, Spring 2015) How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Preliminary project results were presented to national and international audiences through ASABE annual international meeting, Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE) annual meeting, Mississippi Water Resources conference, and other premier conferences during the project period. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? (1) Evaluate transport processes of sediment, nutrient and fecal coliform bacteria in conjunction with field observed data and conservation practices using surface-ground hydrologic and water quality models. Grab surface water quality samples have collected from three USGS stream flow monitoring locations (Merigold, Sunflower, and Leland) within the BSRW about every two weeks since October, 2013 to August, 2016. These three sampling locations represent the spatial distribution of the watershed hydrologic conditions of the BSRW. Two more sampling sites were added right below the cropland area where conservation practices were implemented. Water quality samples (267) have been analyzed for total suspended solids (TSS, mean concentration of 153.66 mg/L), total phosphorus (TP, mean concentration of 1.31 mg/L), and total nitrogen (TN, mean concentration of 0.69 mg/L). In addition, 530 water quality samples, collected between 11/26/2013 to 8/10/2016 were analyzed for bacteria concentration with mean concentration of 16 cfu/5 mL. This was the final water quality sampling work for this project. Results from these water quality sample analysis were used in the modeling studies for developing future scenarios to target conservation practices. (2) Evaluate sensitivity of conservation practices on downstream surface-ground water quality and quantity due to future climate variability and land use changes. This study has selected the BSRW to develop a surface-ground water modeling work. The BSRW covers most of the Mississippi delta. The BSRW (10,488 km2) is located within eleven Mississippi delta counties (Coahoma, Bolivar, Tallahatchie, Sunflower, Leflore, Washington, Humphreys, Sharkey, Issaquena, Yazoo and Warren). There are a wide variety of crop rotation practices implemented within the watershed. This study evaluated the impacts of crop rotation management practices on groundwater storage and recharge using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. The SWAT model was calibrated and validated for daily stream flow using three USGS gage stations available in the watershed. The preliminary modeling results showed that the crop rotation scenarios with continuous rice crop rotations resulted in the lowest groundwater storage, which is due to the high irrigation rates of the rice crop, and the highest increases of groundwater recharge rates, likely due to the response to the deficiency of groundwater needed for irrigation. The crop rotations with corn and cotton resulted in the largest increases in groundwater storage, which is the result of the low irrigation rates. The results of this study are expected to aid farmers and watershed managers to conserve groundwater resources, but still maintain crop production. This study evaluated climate change impacts on stream flow, crop and sediment yields from three different tillage systems (conventional, reduced 1 - close to conservation, and reduced 2 - close to no-till), in the Big Sunflower River Watershed (BSRW) in Mississippi. The SWAT and LARS-WG models were applied and the effect of climate change and tillage practices were assessed. The BSRW is the most heavily used aquifer in Mississippi primarily for irrigating crops such as corn, cotton, soybean, and rice. This study also evaluated the effects of various crop rotation practices on groundwater storage and recharge. The results of this study helps watershed managers, producers, and farmers to the conservation of groundwater resources and continue maintaining their crop production. This study evaluated model sensitivity and uncertainty for hydrological and water quality parameters (e.g. stream flow, total suspended load, total phosphorus, total nitrogen) using the sequential uncertainty fitting (SUFI-2) algorithm in the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The SWAT model was calibrated and validated for daily streamflow, total suspended solids (TSS), total phosphorus (TP), and total nitrogen (TN) loads. The model performed well simulating daily streamflow with the coefficient of determination (R2) up to 0.75 and Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency Index (NSE) up to 0.75, TSS load with R2 up to 0.72 and NSE up to 0.66, and TP load with R2 up to 0.82 and NSE up to 0.77. The model performance was low for TN load with R2 up to 0.31 and NSE up to 0.07, which was similar to other literatures. This study determined that parameter uncertainty was greatest for simulating TN load (p-factor = 0.48, r-factor = 1.25) and that parameter uncertainty was lowest for simulating streamflow (p-factor = 0.70-0.78, r-factor = 1.18-1.19). Output uncertainty was much greater during peak streamflow and peak pollutant loads compared to periods of low streamflow and low pollutant loads. The parameters that were sensitive for streamflow were also found to be sensitive for sediment and nutrient transport. Several modeling scenarios, model evaluation, and research outputs were documented through publications in the high ranking journals. (3) Develop extension programs to educate watershed stakeholders, minorities, youth, and farmers on surface-ground water quality and quantity improvement processes through workshop, research, and extension. Project objectives and activities were presented to watershed stakeholders (producers, and other local, state, federal level participants) in the two project introduction meetings (USGS and Yazoo River Basin meeting). In the Spring of 2015, bi-weekly "Water Seminar Series" was conducted at Mississippi State University. This seminar was one of the first of its interdisciplinary kind to address water research conducted at MSU, which was well received and participated by watershed stakeholders including faculty, staff, graduate students, and Mississippi Water Resources Institute Board members. Eight distinguished speakers were invited in the seminar and over 160 attendees participated. Project objectives, activities, and preliminary results were presented to watershed stakeholders (local, state, federal level participants) in the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering Society (ASABE) meetings, Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE) meeting, Mississippi water resources conference and other premier conferences during the project period. In the fall semester of project period, PI Parajuli taught watershed concepts, climate variability, pollutant source identification and basic modeling tools in the ABE 1863 Engineering Technology in Agriculture and Engineering course. More advanced level water quality topics covering conservation practices, water, erosion and use of several modeling tools were taught in ABE 4803/6803 Biosystems Simulation - Environmental Modeling, and ABE 3513, GPS/GIS Application in Agriculture and Engineering during spring semesters of the project period.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2018 Citation: 1. Xiaojing Ni*, and Prem B. Parajuli. 2018. Evaluation of the impacts of BMPs and tail water recovery system on surface and groundwater using satellite imagery and SWAT reservoir function. Agricultural Water Management, 210(2018): 78-87. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2018.07.027
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: 2. Ying Ouyang+, Prem B. Parajuli, Gary Feng, Theodor D. Leininger, Yongshan Wan, and Padmanava Dash. 2018. Application of Climate Assessment Tool (CAT) to Estimate Climate Change Impacts on Water Quality for Local Watersheds. Journal of Hydrology, 563 (2018): 363-371. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022169418304396
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: 3. Parajuli P. B., Jayakody P., and Ouyang Y. 2017. Evaluation of using Remote Sensing Evapotranspiration data in SWAT. Water Resources Management, 32 (3): 985-996. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-017-1850-z
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: 4. Ying Ouyang+, Prem B. Parajuli, Yide Li, Theodor D. Leininger, and Gary Feng. 2017. Identify temporal trend of air temperature and its impact on forest stream flow in Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley using wavelet analysis. Journal of Environmental Management, 198 (2): 21-31. Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479717304747
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: 5. P. B. Parajuli, P. Jayakody, G. F. Sassenrath, Y. Ouyang. 2016. Assessing the impacts of climate change and tillage practices on stream flow, crop and sediment yields from the Mississippi River Basin. Agricultural Water Management, 168: 112124. Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377416300427
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: 6. Dakhlalla, Abdullah O.*; Parajuli, Prem B.; Ouyang, Ying; and Schmitz, Darrel W. 2016. Evaluating the impacts of crop rotations on groundwater storage and recharge in an agricultural watershed. Agricultural Water Management, 163: 332343. Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377415301207
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: 7. H. Kim*, and P. B. Parajuli. 2014. Impacts of Reservoir Outflow Estimation Methods in SWAT Model Calibration. Transactions of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, 57(4): 1029-1042. Available at: http://elibrary.asabe.org/azdez.asp?JID=3&AID=45050&CID=t2014&v=57&i=4&T=2&redirType= *PI-Parajulis graduate student; +Project Co-PI
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2018 Citation: 1. Prem Parajuli. 2018. Watershed science and engineering assessment: surface-ground water modeling case scenarios. Global conference on engineering and applied science, July 10-12, Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2018 Citation: 2. Xiaojing Ni* and Prem Parajuli. 2018. Evaluation of the impacts of BMPs and tail water recovery system on surface and groundwater using satellite imagery and SWAT reservoir function. ASABE Annual International Meeting, July 29 to August 1, Cobo Center, Detroit, MI.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2018 Citation: 3. Parajuli Prem B. 2018. Watershed Characterization, Hydrological and Water Quality Modeling: Big Sunflower River Watershed in Mississippi. Asia-Pacific Conference on Engineering & Natural Sciences (APICENS), March 13-16, 2018, Taipei, Taiwan.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: 7. Dakhlalla, A. O.*, and P. B. Parajuli. 2017. Assessing model sensitivity and uncertainty for hydrological and water quality parameters. ASABE Annual International Meeting, July 16-19, Spokane, WA.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Other Year Published: 2018 Citation: 4. Xiaojing Ni*, Parajuli Prem B., and Ouyang Ying. 2018. Evaluation of BMPs impact on surface and ground water using a targeting approach. USDA NIFA and NSF water and soils Program Directors annual meeting, NIFA head quarter at Washington D.C., January 29-31, 2018.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: 5. Dakhlalla, Abdullah O.*; Parajuli, Prem B.; Ouyang, Ying; and Schmitz, Darrel W. 2017. Evaluation of agricultural managements on groundwater storage and recharge. Symposium: Managing Water Resources for a Secure Future, ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting, October 22  25, 2017, Tampa, FL.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: 6. Ouyang, Y.+, G. Feng, P. Parajuli, and P. Dash. 2017. Designing a dynamic data driven application system for monitoring stream water quality in the Big Sunflower River Watershed, Mississippi. Oral presentation at CUAHSIs 2017 Conference on Hydroinformatics, July 25 - 27, 2017, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: 8. Ying Ouyang+, Prem Parajuli, and Gary Feng. 2017. Assessment of Climate Change Impact on Stream Hydrology and Water Quality in Lower Yazoo River Watershed Using the BASINS-HSPF-CAT Modeling System. MidSouth SETAC meeting, May 18-19, 2017, Oxford, MS.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: 13. Ni, X.*, and P. B. Parajuli. 2015. A coupled SWAT-MODFLOW model to evaluate the effects of management practices on surface-groundwater. ASABE Annual International Meeting, July 26-29, New Orleans, Louisiana.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: 14. Dakhlalla, A. O.*, and P. B. Parajuli. 2015. Sensitivity of Fecal Coliform Bacteria Transport to Climate Change in an Agricultural Watershed. IBE Annual Conference, March 5-7, Crowne Plaza St. Louis-Clayton, St. Louis, Missouri.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: 9. Ni, X.*, P. B. Parajuli, and Y. Ouyang. 2016. Evaluation of Crop Rotation on Water Quality and Quantity using SWAT. IBE Annual Meeting, April 7-9, 2016, Greenville, SC.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: 10. Ni, X.*, and P. B. Parajuli. 2016. Evaluation of Crop Rotation and BMPs on Water Quality and Quantity using SWAT. 2016 Mississippi Water Resource Conference, April 5-6, Hilton, Jackson, MS.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: 11. Dakhlalla, A. O.*, P. B. Parajuli, Ouyang Ying, and Darrel Schmitz. 2015. Evaluating the impacts of crop rotations on groundwater storage and recharge in a humid sub-tropical watershed. ASABE Annual International Meeting, July 26-29, New Orleans, Louisiana.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: 12. Dakhlalla, A. O.*, and P. B. Parajuli. 2015. Assessing model parameter sensitivity and uncertainty of streamflow, sediment, and nutrient predictions in an agricultural watershed using SWAT. ASABE Annual International Meeting, July 26-29, New Orleans, Louisiana.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: 15. Dakhlalla, A. O.*, P. B. Parajuli, and Darrel Schmitz. 2015. Evaluating the impacts of crop rotations on groundwater storage and recharge in the Mississippi Delta. 2015 Mississippi Water Resource Conference, April 7-8, Hilton, Jackson, MS.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: 16. Ni, X.*, and P. B. Parajuli. 2015. A coupled SWAT-MODFLOW model to evaluate the effects of agricultural management practices on surface and groundwater. 2015 Mississippi Water Resource Conference, April 7-8, Hilton, Jackson, MS.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: 17. Parajuli P. B., Priyantha Jayakody, and Gretchen Sassenrath. 2014. Assessing climate variability impacts on crop and sediment yields. ASABE Paper No. 141913046. ASABE Annual International Meeting, July 13-16, Montreal, QC Canada.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: 18. Dakhlalla, A. O.*, and P. B. Parajuli. 2014. Evaluating the impacts of crop rotations on groundwater recharge and water table depth in the Mississippi Delta. 2014 Mississippi Water Resource Conference, April 1-2, Hilton, Jackson, MS.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: 19. Parajuli P. B., Priyantha Jayakody, and Gretchen Sassenrath. 2014. Climate Variability Impacts on Crop and Sediment Yields. 2014 Mississippi Water Resource Conference, April 1-2, Hilton, Jackson, MS.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: 20. Dakhlalla, A. O.*, and P. B. Parajuli. 2014. Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change on Fecal Coliform Bacteria Transport in the Big Sunflower River Watershed in Mississippi. IBE 19th Annual Conference, March 6-8, Hilton Downtown, Lexington, Kentucky.

Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Watershed stakeholders, students, and water professionals. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Research opportunities have been provided to graduate student in the areas of surface and ground water modeling and analysis work and writing manuscripts, which is expected to help enhance their professional capacity. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Preliminary project results were presented to national and international audiences through ASABE annual international meeting, July, 2017, Spokane, WA. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue developing and refining models to evaluate transport processes of sediment, nutrient and fecal coliform bacteria in conjunction with field observed data and conservation practices using surface-ground hydrologic and water quality models. We will present our preliminary project results to the watershed stakeholders, students, and other audiences in the local, state, and national meetings. We will concentrate on writing manuscripts related to the project. I hope that PhD student Xiaojing Ni, funded through the project will graduate.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? (1) Evaluate transport processes of sediment, nutrient and fecal coliform bacteria in conjunction with field observed data and conservation practices using surface-ground hydrologic and water quality models. Grab surface water quality samples have collected from three USGS stream flow monitoring locations (Merigold, Sunflower, and Leland) within the BSRW about every two weeks since October, 2013 to August, 2016. These three sampling locations represent the spatial distribution of the watershed hydrologic conditions of the BSRW. Two more sampling sites were added right below the cropland area where conservation practices were implemented. Water quality samples (267) have been analyzed for total suspended solids (TSS, mean concentration of 153.66 mg/L), total phosphorus (TP, mean concentration of 1.31 mg/L), and total nitrogen (TN, mean concentration of 0.69 mg/L). In addition, 530 water quality samples, collected between 11/26/2013 to 8/10/2016 were analyzed for bacteria concentration with mean concentration of 16 cfu/5 mL. It was the final water quality sampling work for this project. (2) Evaluate sensitivity of conservation practices on downstream surface-ground water quality and quantity due to future climate variability and land use changes. This study evaluated model sensitivity and uncertainty for hydrological and water quality parameters (e.g. stream flow, total suspended load, total phosphorus, total nitrogen) using the sequential uncertainty fitting (SUFI-2) algorithm in the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The SWAT model was calibrated and validated for daily streamflow, total suspended solids (TSS), total phosphorus (TP), and total nitrogen (TN) loads. The model performed well simulating daily streamflow with the coefficient of determination (R2) up to 0.75 and Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency Index (NSE) up to 0.75, TSS load with R2 up to 0.72 and NSE up to 0.66, and TP load with R2 up to 0.82 and NSE up to 0.77. The model performance was low for TN load with R2 up to 0.31 and NSE up to 0.07, which was similar to other literatures. This study determined that parameter uncertainty was greatest for simulating TN load (p-factor = 0.48, r-factor = 1.25) and that parameter uncertainty was lowest for simulating streamflow (p-factor = 0.70-0.78, r-factor = 1.18-1.19). Output uncertainty was much greater during peak streamflow and peak pollutant loads compared to periods of low streamflow and low pollutant loads. The parameters that were sensitive for streamflow were also found to be sensitive for sediment and nutrient transport. (3) Develop extension programs to educate watershed stakeholders, minorities, youth, and farmers on surface-ground water quality and quantity improvement processes through workshop, research, and extension. Preliminary results of the project were presented in the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering Society (ASABE) meeting in July, 2017. In the fall of 2016, PI Parajuli taught watershed concepts, climate variability, pollutant source identification and basic modeling tools in the ABE 1863 Engineering Technology in Agriculture and Engineering course. More advanced level water quality topics covering conservation practices, water, erosion and use of several modeling tools were taught in ABE 4803/6803 Biosystems Simulation - Environmental Modeling, and ABE 3513, GPS/GIS Application in Agriculture and Engineering during spring 2017.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: 1. Ying Ouyang+, Prem B. Parajuli, Yide Li, Theodor D. Leininger, and Gary Feng. 2017. Identify temporal trend of air temperature and its impact on forest stream flow in Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley using wavelet analysis. Journal of Environmental Management, 198 (2): 21-31. Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479717304747 +Project Co-PI
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: 1. Dakhlalla*, A. O., and P. B. Parajuli. 2017. Assessing model sensitivity and uncertainty for hydrological and water quality parameters. ASABE Annual International Meeting, July 16-19, Spokane, Washington. *PI-Parajulis graduate student

Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/16

Outputs
Target Audience:Watershed stakeholders, students, and water professionals. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Opportunities have been provided to graduate students to present their preliminary project results (surface and ground water modeling and analysis work) in the professional meeting, which is expected to help to enhance their professional capacity. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Preliminary project results were presented to watershed stakeholders (local, state, federal level participants) in the Mississippi Water Resources Conference in 2016. In addition, results were presented to national and international audiences through the IBE annual conference, 2016 and ASABE annual international meeting, 2015. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue collecting water quality samples from the sampling locations. We will continue developing and refining models to evaluate transport processes of sediment, nutrient and fecal coliform bacteria in conjunction with field observed data and conservation practices using surface-ground hydrologic and water quality models. We will present our preliminary project results to the watershed stakeholders, students, and other audiences in the local, state, and national meetings. We will concentrate on writing manuscripts related to the project.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? (1) Evaluate transport processes of sediment, nutrient and fecal coliform bacteria in conjunction with field observed data and conservation practices using surface-ground hydrologic and water quality models. Grab surface water quality samples have been collected from three USGS stream flow monitoring locations (Merigold, Sunflower, and Leland) within the BSRW about every two weeks since October, 2013. These three sampling locations represent the spatial distribution of the watershed hydrologic conditions of the BSRW. Two more sampling sites were added right below the cropland area where conservation practices are implemented. Water quality samples (227) have been analyzed for total suspended solids (TSS, mean concentration of 158.46 mg/L), total phosphorus (TP, mean concentration of 1.26 mg/L), and total nitrogen (TN, mean concentration of 0.77 mg/L). In addition, 280 water quality samples, collected between 11/26/2013 to 6/29/2016 were analyzed for bacteria concentration with mean concentration of 16 cfu/5 mL. Some other water quality sample analysis work especially for TSS, TP, and TN analysis are under the process. (2) Evaluate sensitivity of conservation practices on downstream surface-ground water quality and quantity due to future climate variability and land use changes. This study evaluated climate change impacts on stream flow, crop and sediment yields from three different tillage systems (conventional, reduced 1 - close to conservation, and reduced 2 - close to no-till), in the Big Sunflower River Watershed (BSRW) in Mississippi. The SWAT and LARS-WG models were applied and the effect of climate change and tillage practices were assessed. The BSRW is the most heavily used aquifer in Mississippi primarily for irrigating crops such as corn, cotton, soybean, and rice. This study also evaluated the effects of various crop rotation practices on groundwater storage and recharge. The results of this study helps watershed managers, producers, and farmers to the conservation of groundwater resources and continue maintaining their crop production. (3) Develop extension programs to educate watershed stakeholders, minorities, youth, and farmers on surface-ground water quality and quantity improvement processes through workshop, research, and extension. Project objectives, activities, and preliminary results were presented to watershed stakeholders (local, state, federal level participants) in the Mississippi Water Resources Conference in 2016 and Institute of Biological Engineering annual conference in 2016. In the fall of 2015, PI Parajuli taught watershed characterization, climate variability, pollutant source identification and basic modeling concepts in the ABE 1863 Engineering Technology in Agriculture and Engineering course. More advanced level water quality topics covering conservation practices, water quality and use of several modeling tools were taught in ABE 4803/6803 Biosystems Simulation - Environmental Modeling, and ABE 3513, GPS/GIS Application in Agriculture and Engineering during spring 2016.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: 1. P. B. Parajuli, P. Jayakody, G. F. Sassenrath, Y. Ouyang. 2016. Assessing the impacts of climate change and tillage practices on stream flow, crop and sediment yields from the Mississippi River Basin. Agricultural Water Management, 168: 112124. Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377416300427
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: 2. Dakhlalla, Abdullah O.*; Parajuli, Prem B.; Ouyang, Ying; and Schmitz, Darrel W. 2016. Evaluating the impacts of crop rotations on groundwater storage and recharge in an agricultural watershed. Agricultural Water Management, 163: 332343. Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377415301207
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: 1. Ni*, X., P. B. Parajuli, and Y. Ouyang. 2016. Evaluation of Crop Rotation on Water Quality and Quantity using SWAT. IBE Annual Meeting, April 7-9, 2016, Greenville, SC.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: 2. Ni*, X., and P. B. Parajuli. 2016. Evaluation of Crop Rotation and BMPs on Water Quality and Quantity using SWAT. 2016 Mississippi Water Resource Conference, April 5-6, Hilton, Jackson, MS.

Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/15

Outputs
Target Audience:Our project reached to the watershed stakeholders, faculty, students, and other audiences in the local, state, and national meetings. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Opportunities have been provided to graduate students to present their preliminary project results (surface and ground water modeling and analysis work) in the professional meeting, which is expected to help to enhance their professional capacity. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Preliminary project results were presented to watershed stakeholders (local, state, federal level participants) in the Mississippi Water Resources Conference in 2015. In addition, results were presented to national and international audiences through the IBE annual conference and ASABE annual international meeting. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue collecting water quality samples from the sampling locations. We will continue developing and refining models to evaluate transport processes of sediment, nutrient and fecal coliform bacteria in conjunction with field observed data and conservation practices using surface-ground hydrologic and water quality models. We will present our preliminary project results to the watershed stakeholders, students, and other audiences in the local, state, and national meetings.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? (1) Evaluate transport processes of sediment, nutrient and fecal coliform bacteria in conjunction with field observed data and conservation practices using surface-ground hydrologic and water quality models. Grab surface water quality samples have been collected from three USGS stream flow monitoring locations (Merigold, Sunflower, and Leland) within the BSRW about every two weeks since October, 2013. These three sampling locations represent the spatial distribution of the watershed hydrologic conditions of the BSRW. Two more sampling sites were added right below the cropland area where conservation practices are implemented. Water quality samples (113) have been analyzed for total suspended solids (TSS, mean concentration of 166.51 mg/L), total phosphorus (TP, mean concentration of 1.09 mg/L), and total nitrogen (TN, mean concentration of 0.51 mg/L). In addition, water quality samples were analyzed for bacteria concentration (280) with mean concentration of 822 cfu/100 mL. Other water quality sample analysis work (~28 samples) especially for TSS, TP, and TN analysis are under the process. (2) Evaluate sensitivity of conservation practices on downstream surface-ground water quality and quantity due to future climate variability and land use changes. There are a wide variety of crop rotation practices implemented within the watershed. This study evaluated the impacts of crop rotation management practices on groundwater storage and recharge using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. The SWAT model was calibrated and validated for daily stream flow using three USGS gage stations available in thewatershed. The preliminary modeling results showed that the crop rotation scenarios with continuous rice crop rotations resulted in the lowest groundwater storage, which is due to the high irrigation rates of the rice crop, and the highest increases of groundwater recharge rates, likely due to the response to the deficiency of groundwater needed for irrigation. The crop rotations with corn and cotton resulted in the largest increases in groundwater storage, which is the result of the low irrigation rates. The results of this study are expected to aid farmers and watershed managers to conserve groundwater resources, but still maintain crop production. (3) Develop extension programs to educate watershed stakeholders, minorities, youth, and farmers on surface-ground water quality and quantity improvement processes through workshop, research, and extension. In the Spring of 2015, bi-weekly "Water Seminar Series" was conducted at Mississippi State University. This seminar was one of the first of its interdisciplinary kind to address water research conducted at MSU, which was well received and participated by watershed stakeholders including faculty, staff, graduate students, and Mississippi Water Resources Institute Board members. Eight distinguished speakers were invited in the seminar and over 160 attendees participated. Project objectives, activities, and preliminary results were presented to watershed stakeholders (local, state, federal level participants) in the Mississippi Water Resources Conference in 2015. In the fall of 2014, PI Parajuli taught watershed characterization, climate variability, pollutant source identification and basic modeling concepts in the ABE 1863 Engineering Technology in Agriculture and Engineering course. More advanced level water quality topics covering conservation practices, water quality and use of several modeling tools were taught in ABE 4803/6803 Biosystems Simulation/Environmental Modeling, and ABE 3513, GPS/GIS Application in Agriculture and Engineering during spring 2015.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Dakhlalla, A. O., and P. B. Parajuli. 2015. Sensitivity of Fecal Coliform Bacteria Transport to Climate Change in an Agricultural Watershed. IBE Annual Conference, March 5-7, Crowne Plaza St. Louis-Clayton, St. Louis, Missouri.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Dakhlalla, A. O., P. B. Parajuli, and Darrel Schmitz. 2015. Evaluating the impacts of crop rotations on groundwater storage and recharge in the Mississippi Delta. 2015 Mississippi Water Resource Conference, April 7-8, Hilton, Jackson, MS.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Ni, X., and P. B. Parajuli. 2015. A coupled SWAT-MODFLOW model to evaluate the effects of agricultural management practices on surface and groundwater. 2015 Mississippi Water Resource Conference, April 7-8, Hilton, Jackson, MS.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2015 Citation: Parajuli P. B., P. Jayakody, G. F. Sassenrath, and Y. Ouyang. 2015. Assessing the impacts of climate change and crop management practices on stream flow, crop, and sediment yields.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Dakhlalla, A. O., P. B. Parajuli, Ouyang Ying, and Darrel Schmitz. 2015. Evaluating the impacts of crop rotations on groundwater storage and recharge in a humid sub-tropical watershed. ASABE Annual International Meeting, July 26-29, New Orleans, Louisiana.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Ni, X., and P. B. Parajuli. 2015. A coupled SWAT-MODFLOW model to evaluate the effects of management practices on surface-groundwater. ASABE Annual International Meeting, July 26-29, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/14

Outputs
Target Audience: Graduate and undergraduate students, watershed stakeholders, and collaborators. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Training opportunity provided to graduate students (3) and undergraduate student (1) on surface-ground water quality modeling and monitoring. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We will continue collecting water quality samples from the current three gage stations and add at least one more station by next year. We will develop and refine models to evaluate transport processes of sediment, nutrient and fecal coliform bacteria in conjunction with field observed data and conservation practices using surface-ground hydrologic and water quality models. We plan to conduct a social survey and analysis to assess socio-economic conditions and behavioral practices to adopt conservation practices. We will update project website with the information related to model results. We will conduct a seminar and include benefits of applying conservation practices in under-graduate and graduate classes. We will continue attend local, state and national level meeting to present our research findings.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? (1) Evaluate transport processes of sediment, nutrient and fecal coliform bacteria in conjunction with field observed data and conservation practices using surface-ground hydrologic and water quality models. Grab surface water quality samples have been collected from three USGS stream flow monitoring locations (Merigold, Sunflower, and Leland) within the BSRW about every two weeks since October, 2013. These three sampling locations represent the spatial distribution of the watershed hydrologic conditions of the BSRW. Alex Crawford, a student worker was hired (10/2013) in the project to collect water quality sampling and bacteria analysis work. Water quality samples (24) have been analyzed for total suspended solids (TSS, mean concentration of 145.4 mg/L), total phosphorus (TP, mean concentration of 0.6 mg/L), and total nitrogen (TN, mean concentration of 1.09 mg/L). In addition, water quality samples were analyzed for bacteria concentration (126) with mean concentration of 1,194 cfu/100/mL. Other water quality sample analysis work especially for TSS, TP, and TN analysis (102) are under the process. This study has selected the BSRW to develop a surface-ground water modeling work. The BSRW covers most of the Mississippi delta. The BSRW (10,488 km2) is located within eleven Mississippi delta counties (Coahoma, Bolivar, Tallahatchie, Sunflower, Leflore, Washington, Humphreys, Sharkey, Issaquena, Yazoo and Warren). Trey Robinson, a graduate student was recently hired (07/2014) in the project for conducting surface water modeling work. he has met with Co-PI Dr. Ron Bingner twice to discuss on surface water quality modeling using AnnAGNPS model. Xiaojing Ni, a graduate student was recently hired (08/2014) in the project for conducting surface and ground water modeling work. She has started learning surface water quality modeling using the SWAT model. (2) Evaluate sensitivity of conservation practices on downstream surface-ground water quality and quantity due to future climate variability and land use changes. There are a wide variety of agricultural conservation practices which are implemented to improve water quality within the BSRW. A field survey (two days) was conducted to verify land use and conservation practices implementation in the watershed, which is important to develop surface and ground water modeling framework.A webpage has been developed to display project work including model simulation results and GIS data layers for helping decision makings. The webpage available at : http://pp354.abe.msstate.edu/project.html will be updated over the time. (3) Develop extension programs to educate watershed stakeholders, minorities, youth, and farmers on surface-ground water quality and quantity improvement processes through workshop, research, and extension. Project objectives and activities were presented to watershed stakeholders (producers, and other local, state, federal level participants) in the two project introduction meetings (USGS and Yazoo River Basin meeting). In the fall of 2013, PI Parajuli taught watershed characterization, climate variability, pollutant source identification and basic modeling techniques in ABE 1863 Engineering Technology in Agriculture and Engineering course. More advanced level water quality topics covering conservation practices, water quality and use of several modeling tools were taught in ABE 4803/6803 Biosystems Simulation/Environmental Modeling, and ABE 3513, GPS/GIS Application in Agriculture and Engineering during spring 2014. PI-Parajuli, presented in the ABE 4961 seminar (09/30/2013). The topic of his presentation was related to the project “conservation practices implementation and their effects on water quality”.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: H. Kim, and P. B. Parajuli. 2014. Impacts of Reservoir Outflow Estimation Methods in SWAT Model Calibration. Transactions of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, 57(4): 1029-1042.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Parajuli P. B., Priyantha Jayakody, and Gretchen Sassenrath. 2014. Assessing climate variability impacts on crop and sediment yields. ASABE Paper No. 141913046. ASABE Annual International Meeting, July 13-16, Montreal, QC Canada.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Dakhlalla, A. O., and P. B. Parajuli. 2014. Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change on Fecal Coliform Bacteria Transport in the Big Sunflower River Watershed in Mississippi. IBE 19th Annual Conference, March 6-8, Hilton Downtown, Lexington, Kentucky.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Dakhlalla, A. O., and P. B. Parajuli. 2014. Evaluating the impacts of crop rotations on groundwater recharge and water table depth in the Mississippi Delta. 2014 Mississippi Water Resource Conference, April 1-2, Hilton, Jackson, MS.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2014 Citation: Parajuli P. B., Priyantha Jayakody, and Gretchen Sassenrath. 2014. Climate Variability Impacts on Crop and Sediment Yields. 2014 Mississippi Water Resource Conference, April 1-2, Hilton, Jackson, MS.