Source: COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to
SUSTAINING AGRICULTURE THROUGH ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT TO PRESERVE THE OGALLALA AQUIFER UNDER A CHANGING CLIMATE
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1009278
Grant No.
2016-68007-25066
Project No.
COL0-2015-09812
Proposal No.
2015-09812
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
A8101
Project Start Date
Mar 15, 2016
Project End Date
Mar 14, 2021
Grant Year
2019
Project Director
Schipanski, M.
Recipient Organization
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
FORT COLLINS,CO 80523
Performing Department
Soil & Crop Sciences
Non Technical Summary
The Ogallala Aquifer, one of the largest freshwater aquifers in the world, supports 30% of U.S. crop and animal production, increases agricultural production by more than $12 billion annually, and impacts global food supplies. However, much of the Ogallala is rapidly declining and climate change will only compound this challenge. Our long-term goal is to optimize use of groundwater in the Ogallala Aquifer Region (OAR) to sustain food production systems, rural communities and ecosystem services. Achieving this goal requires integrated management to improve use of the right water at the right time in the right place across the OAR. Our systems-based approach will foster water conservation through the development of cost-effective, adoptable and sustainable practices and technologies for agricultural producers and processors. We will work in close collaboration with local groundwater management districts and use a network of research and extension sites to ensure an integrated, aquifer-wide approach and build long-range capacity for adaptive management. This project will leverage ongoing work to develop a framework that will create wide-scale changes in the management of the OAR and serve as a global model for groundwater management.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
15%
Applied
85%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
1112410106025%
1115360202020%
1110110107010%
1110210301020%
1110210308010%
1110199205015%
Knowledge Area
111 - Conservation and Efficient Use of Water;

Subject Of Investigation
0110 - Soil; 0210 - Water resources; 2410 - Cross-commodity research--multiple crops; 0199 - Soil and land, general; 5360 - Drainage and irrigation facilities and systems;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering; 1060 - Biology (whole systems); 2050 - Hydrology; 1070 - Ecology; 3010 - Economics; 3080 - Sociology;
Goals / Objectives
Our long-term goal is to optimize use of groundwater in the Ogallala Aquifer Region (OAR) to sustain food production systems, rural communities and ecosystem services. Achieving this goal requires integrated management to improve use of the right water at the right time in the right place across the OAR.Our specific objectives are to:Integrate hydrologic, crop, soil, and climate models and databases to provide baseline data for evaluating management and policy scenarios.Develop and identify the best irrigation technologies, cropping system management practices, and decision support tools to improve water use efficiency.Analyze current social, policy, and economic frameworks in the OAR and identify incentives and policies to increase the adoption of adaptive strategies.Enable the adoption of tools and recommended strategies for improved water use through highly integrated and effective communication among the project team and technology transfer with stakeholders.
Project Methods
Our approach will utilize a network of sites that span the climatic, hydrogeologic, and management gradients across the OAR. These sites already serve as knowledge 'hubs' in their region and have established producer and stakeholder networks. Each of our specific research and extension activities will include a minimum of 3 hub sites to ensure an integrated, aquifer-wide approach. This will build long-range capacity for adaptive management.Research approach: Research activities will include development and validation of models to simulate management systems and groundwater hydrology, data synthesis (e.g., meta-analysis)to identify best management practices, and research on cutting edge irrigationand soil managementtechnologies. Research findings will inform the development of decision support tools, extension activities, and extension products.Extension approach: Integrated research/extension teams can rapidly transfer innovations from public research and the private sector to crop producers and advisors. We will employ high impact methods such as hands-on workshops and on-farm demonstrations to educate users on new decision support tools and irrigation methods. Producers' experiences will be tapped to strengthen tools and the credibility of extension information.Together, our research and extension approach will integratebiophysical models, field-based solutions, and socioeconomic analysis into effective outreach and extension.We will develop critical base models for aquifer hydrology (SWAT-MODFLOW)and crop-water production functions (DSSAT) that will be utilized for the socioeconomic modeling. Research and analysis of technology and management options, bridges across all other objectives to inform the crop-water management scenarios that will be integrated into crop modeling and evaluated by socioeconomic modeling, and the development of decision support tools informed through our extension efforts. Extension and outreach efforts will focus on integrating outputs and extension activities from the other objectives.

Progress 03/15/16 to 03/14/21

Outputs
Target Audience: Target audience includes, farmers, members of district boards and other local governance groups focused on groundwater management, extension agents, seed and equipment dealers, local and state-level policy makers, private industry representatives, crop consultants, regional NGOs and state- and national-level groups focused on soil and water conservation in the Ogallala aquifer region, university and research faculty and students internal and external to the 8 universities funded by this project, and international groups and governments. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project provided training to 19 graduate students, 7 post-doctoral scholars, and several undergraduate students. This team of students and post-doctoral scholars have collaborated on many research projects, including jointly leading a review paper that highlights the opportunities and challenges in the development of integrated models. Of the graduate students and postdoctoral scholars trained through this program, five are now in tenure-track faculty positions and others have moved into postdoctoral positions, scientist positions with the US Economic Research Service and other professional positions. In addition, our program provided communications training for 4 people in graphic design, newsletter development, social media, website development, effective planning and coordination for large, virtual meetings like the Ogallala Summit. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The team's research has been highlighted in four special journal issues in Irrigation Science, Agricultural Water Management, Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education, and the Journal of the American Water Resources Association. In addition, the team published more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles and many presentations at national and international conferences. Publications include primary research as well as high-impact reviews, syntheses, and meta-analyses. The team has also produced and disseminated several fact sheets, other reports, and resource guides at conferences, field days, and online through social media (Twitter -1,040 followers with an average of 30,000 impressions annually; Facebook- 135 followers), via our YouTube channel (351 views), and an eNewsletter (256 subscribers). The irrigation scheduling decision-support tools supported by our team are used by several hundred users. Team members have also given more than 400 presentations and contributed to many related conference proceedings. The team's outreach has resulted in more than 25,000 in-person interactions within and beyond the aquifer region, including overseas. The two Ogallala Aquifer Summits held in Garden City, KS, on April 9-10, 2018, and as a virtual event on February 24-25, 2021, each brought together more than 200 water management leaders from all eight Ogallala states to discuss farm practice, science, and policy, catalyzing new programs and legislative proposals across participating states. The Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) program was launched in Nebraska in 2017 and replicated in Oklahoma in 2019. This innovative program offers interactive real-life farm management competitions that evaluate profitability and input-use efficiency, involving 126 teams participating in Nebraska from 2017-2020, and 23 teams in the Oklahoma program from 2019-2020. In September 2018, a 7-state Master Irrigator meeting involving more than 30 people from the Ogallala region met in Dumas, Texas, to initiate ongoing multi-state discussions regarding replication of the successful Master Irrigator Program operated by the Texas North Plains Groundwater Conservation District, has led to an active multi-state network of Extension professionals interested in learning from each other's programs successes and challenges in groundwater and agriculture-dependent areas of the High Plains, California, and the Delta region. Collaborating state water centers published project outreach addressing a variety of Ogallala region agricultural water issues: 1) November/December 2017 Colorado Water, and 2) Fall 2018 txH20, and 3) Spring 2020 Nebraska Water Current. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Over the past 5 years, our team's cross-state efforts have substantially advanced knowledge and expanded the diverse network of engaged in sustaining the vitality and productivity of agriculture and groundwater dependent High Plains communities. Our team's research and outreach approach has directly reached and supported thousands of individuals, including producers, water district leaders, state and federal agency representatives, commodity group representatives, utilities, technology providers, city managers, and many others. Examples of our work's impacts include the creation and replication in different programs across multiple states such as Master Irrigator and Testing Ag Performance Solutions programs, the Irrigation Innovation Consortium funded by the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research; legislation passed in in Oklahoma to establish the state's first groundwater management district in the Panhandle; research by Colorado Department of Water Resources to modify "use it or lose it" statutes that dampen producers' willingness to optimize their irrigation systems and reduce their consumptive water use; new state-wide soil health initiatives in New Mexico and Colorado, the development of the Ogallala Water data portal, and the establishment of a new Targeted Conservation Program through NRCS-Colorado. Taken together, a key takeaway from our work is that while there is no "no one-size-fits all" solution to facing the water challenges of the region, many sound strategies and tools exist to support more profitable and climate resilient production systems. Our research and engagement efforts have identified how water managers in this unique semi-arid production area can benefit from more flexible policies and access to programs that reward stewardship of the Ogallala resource, including voluntary collective commitments to limit pumping, new limited irrigation crop insurance options and programs that help producers maximize profit rather than focusing on maximizing yield. Objective 1. Our team developed a novel, 4-part integrated model (MOD$$AT). This model combines a spatially explicit hydrological model (SWAT-MODFLOW) with a daily time-step crop model (DSSAT) and an economic decision model that operates using historical weather data or future climate projections. We have partnered with local groundwater management districts to evaluate potential hydrologic and economic impacts of real-world policy and management scenarios. We have generated an extensive set of interdisciplinary datasets to validate and calibrate the model that involve soil, cropping, individual well data for large regions and new code to automate the integrated model runs. Objective 2. Our team has conducted a wide range of field-based research pertinent to irrigated, limited irrigation, and dryland production systems. We compared soil moisture sensors, evaluated emerging irrigation technologies and improved four irrigation scheduling tools-- WISE, KanSched, iCrop, and DIEM. We identified sub-regional combinations of soil conditions and crop species most likely to show improved water use efficiency from the adoption of advanced irrigation techniques. A few examples of research leading to impactful outcomes: 1) results showed that early season irrigation of cotton, a common practice, actually decreases profitability and does not significantly increase yield; 2) water and nitrogen productivity are interrelated and affected by cultivar choice and precision management, leading Nebraska producers to reduce N applications; 3) soil health research highlighted the increased value of soil management with dwindling irrigation capacity; 4) soil carbon is likely to decline with transitions from irrigated to dryland production systems; and 5) maintaining residues can significantly improve soil water availability during corn vegetative growth, presenting an opportunity to irrigate less in normal to wet production years. Objective 3. Our team fielded the first survey of irrigators of its kind since the 1980's that spanned the 6 main Ogallala region states (CO, KS, NE, NM, OK, and TX), generating new knowledge from the insights shared by over 1200 respondents about how they view, value, and approach water management and conservation. Our survey results showed that: 1) irrigators have altruistic and practical interests in maintaining groundwater stocks and well capacities to sustain their communities and manage drought risk; 2) most irrigators feel they are already doing all they can personally to conserve water on their operations; and 3) a minority of irrigators engage in voluntary efforts and programs focused on conservation management. Our resource economics research found that: 1) increasing stress of groundwater declines and hotter, drier growing years anticipated due to climate change is likely to increase groundwater's value over time; and 2) up to 25% of land in counties expected to transition away from irrigated crop production in the near future is unsuitable for dryland crop production and that failing to account for land suitability class can substantially underestimate economic impacts of aquifer depletion by 12-45%. Without this planning to establish perennial pasture prior to irrigation loss, land abandonment and major wind erosion conditions might become more prevalent. This information influenced management strategies of cattle producers in Texas and the Kansas Water Office to support planning related to transitions away from irrigated production. Other research identified that: 1) existing programs that retire land, such as the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, lead to additional future water availability, but that impacts are concentrated near retired wells and partially offset by additional pumping at nearby active wells; 2) crop prices from 2001-2017 did not impact the quantity of groundwater pumped per acre, suggesting that irrigators consider groundwater to be a fixed input and 3) research on crop and economic data from the Sheridan #6 Local Enhanced Management Area (LEMA) showed how producers have been able to reduce their total and average groundwater use by more than 30% over a 5-year period without reducing profitability by making shifts in crop choice, rotations and a small decrease in irrigated land area. The Sheridan LEMA example has been extremely influential in encouraging other groundwater management districts to explore similar collective efforts to engage in voluntary conservation. Objective 4. Our team led the coordination of 8-state Ogallala Aquifer Summits in 2018 and 2021 that brought together more than 200 stakeholders from 8 states to identify actionable strategies for groundwater management. As a key outcome of the summit, our team led the replication across the High Plains of the influential and effective Master Irrigator program into Colorado and Oklahoma. Master Irrigator provides comprehensive training to equip producers and farm managers with knowledge and resources to make shifts in their crop and irrigation management to reduce consumptive water use while increasing their profitability. Our team has also led the development and replication of the innovative Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) program in Nebraska and Oklahoma, which integrates the expertise of research, extension, and private industry partners. The extensive learning and engagement of participants and partners involved in this program is impacting water management at the farm and regional scale and helping to improve technology tools usability. Our group is trusted and recognized for having fostered many meaningful connections and a richer, more engaged and informed cross-state conversation involving producers, water managers, policy makers, researchers, and others. Together, this aquifer-wide community network is increasingly engaged in encouraging groundwater conservation and sustaining regional and rural community vitality.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Crouch, M., B. Guerrero, S. Amosson, T. Marek, and L. Almas (2020). Analyzing Potential Water Conservation Strategies in the Texas Panhandle. Irrigation Science https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-020-00691-2
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Deines, J.M., M.E. Schipanski, B. Golden, S. C. Zipper, S. Nozari, C.Rottler, B. Guerrero, V. Sharda (2020). Transitions from irrigated to dryland agriculture in the Ogallala Aquifer: Land use suitability and regional economic impacts Agricultural Water Management https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106061
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Lauer, S., Sanderson, M. Irrigated agriculture and human development: a county-level analysis 1980??2010. Environ Dev Sustain 22, 4407??4423 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-019-00390-9
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Manning, D.T., M. R. Rad, J. Suter, C. Goemans, Z. Xiang, and R. Bailey (2020). Non-market valuation in integrated assessment modeling: The benefits of water right retirement. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management: 102341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2020.102341
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Mitchell-McCallister, D., A. Cano., C. West (2020). Meta-analysis of crop water use efficiency by irrigation system in the Texas High Plains. Irrigation Science https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-020-00696-x
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Reyes, J., E. Elias, E. Haacker, A. Kremen, L. Parker, and C. Rottler (2020). Assessing agricultural risk management using historic crop insurance loss data over the Ogallala aquifer. Volume 232: Agricultural Water Management https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106000
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Rouhi, R.M, Araya A, Zambreski, Z.T. (2020). Downside risk of Aquifer depletion. Irrig. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-020-00688-xhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-020-00688-x
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Rouhi Rad, M., E.M.K. Haacker, V. Sharda, S. Nozari, Z. Xiang, A. Araya, V. Uddameri, J.F. Suter, P. Gowda. (2020) MOD$$AT: A hydro-economic modeling framework for aquifer management in irrigated agricultural regions. Agricultural Water Management, Volume 238 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106194
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Rudnick, D.R., Stockton, M., Taghvaeian, S., Warren, J., Dukes, M.D., Kremen, A., Henry, C.G., Aguilar, J., Ortiz, B., Andales, A., Burr, C.A., Qiao, X., Liang, W., Walthour, S., and Amosson, S.H. (2020). Innovative extension methods in the USA to promote irrigation water management. Transactions of the ASABE, Vol. 63(5): 1549-1558
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Schneekloth, J., Calder�n, F., Nielsen, D., and Fonte, S.J. (2020) Tillage and residue management effects on irrigated maize performance and water cycling in a semiarid cropping system of Eastern Colorado. Irrigation Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-020-00702-2
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Sharda, V., Mekonnen, M.M., Ray, C., Gowda, P.H (2020). Use of Multiple Environment Variety Trials Data to Simulate Maize Yields in the Ogallala Aquifer Region: A Two Model Approach. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA). https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12873
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Sukcharoen, K., B. Golden, M. Vestal, and B. Guerrero (2020). Do crop price expectations matter? An analysis of groundwater pumping decisions in Western Kansas. Volume 231, 31 March 2020, Agricultural Water Management https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106021
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Araya A., Gowda P.H., Rouhi Rad M., Ariyaratne C.B., Ciampitti I.A., Prasad P.V.V. (2021). Evaluating optimal irrigation for potential yield and economic performance of major crops in southwestern Kansas. Agricultural Water Management. 244, 106536. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106536
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Hrozencik, R. Aaron, Dale T. Manning, Jordan F. Suter, Christopher Goemans (2021). Impacts of Block-Rate Energy Pricing on Groundwater Demand in Irrigated Agriculture. American Journal of Agricultural Economics. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajae.12231
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Mitchell-McCallister, D., R. McCullough, P. Johnson, and R. Blake (2021). An economic analysis on the transition to dryland production on deficit-irrigated cropping systems of the Texas High Plains. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2021.531601
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Rad, M. Rouhi, Manning, D. T., Suter, J. F., & Goemans, C. (2021). Policy Leakage or Policy Benefit? Spatial Spillovers from Conservation Policies in Common Property Resources. Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. https://doi.org/10.1086/714148
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Thapa, V.R., R. Ghimire, V. Acosta-Martinez, M.A. Marsalis, and M. Schipanski (2021). Cover Crop Biomass and Species Composition Affect Soil Microbial Community Structure and Enzyme Activities in Semiarid Cropping Systems. Applied Soil Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2020.103735
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Thapa, V.R., R. Ghimire, and M. Marsalis. 2021. Effects of cover crops on labile soil carbon and nitrogen fractions, and sorghum yield in winter wheat-sorghum-fallow system. Agronomy. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11040762.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Taghvaeian, S., Andales, A., Allen, N., Kisekka, I., OShaughnessy, S., Porter, D., Sui, R., Fulton, A., Aguilar, J. 2020. Irrigation scheduling in the United States: The progress made and the path forward. Transactions of the ASABE, Vol. 63(5): 1603-1618 https://doi.org/10.13031/trans.14110
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Xiang, Z., R.T.Bailey, S. Nozari, Z.Husain, I.Kisekka, V. Sharda, P.Gowda (2020). DSSAT-MODFLOW: A new modeling framework for exploring groundwater conservation strategies in irrigated areas. Agricultural Water Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106033
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Zhang, Y., P. Gowda, D. Brown, C. Rice, Z. Zambreski, S. Kutikoff, and X. Lin. Time-varying trends in frost indicators in the U.S. Southern Great Plains (2020). International Journal of Climatology. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.6803


Progress 03/15/19 to 03/14/20

Outputs
Target Audience: Target audience includes, farmers, members of district boards and other local governance groups focused on groundwater management, extension agents, seed and equipment dealers, local and state-level policy makers, private industry representatives, crop consultants, regional NGOs and state- and national-level groups focused on soil and water conservation in the Ogallala aquifer region, university and research faculty and students internal and external to the 8 universities funded by this project, and international groups and governments. Changes/Problems:We requested a no-cost extension year that will allow us to complete our planned work. We had to postpone the 2nd Ogallala Summit that was initially scheduled for late March 2020 and we are still waiting to see what other changes may be needed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The team continues to provide critical training opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in interdisciplinary, systems-science. As evidence of the successful mentoring across our team, four postdoctoral researchers were hired into faculty positions and three of these positions are at project partner institutions during this reporting period. All four of these early career scientists will continue to lead research in water management in their new positions. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, presentations at local, regional,national and international meetings, and through social media channels. In addition, we have made a concerted effort to distill our research findings reported in peer-reviewed journals intoeasy-to-understand, lay-term summariescreated for each publication on the project website. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We have ambitious plans for our final project year. We have completed the protoype integrated model that links DSSAT-SWAT-MODFLOW to an economic model. In this final year, we will apply this model to sub-regions in KS, TX, CO, and NE, and will work with stakeholders to evaluate different potential future scenarios to inform policy and management. We will lead two special journal issues to showcase our research. We will continue to expand the Testing Ag Perfomance Solutions and Master Irrigator programs through cross-state collaboration.We will organize a second Ogallala Summit that will again bring together stakeholders from all of the states overlying aquifer to tackle some of the difficult questions surrounding management of this shared resource.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? This team's multidisciplinary research and formation of new transdisciplinary networks has led to measurable regional, national, and international impacts. The team published 26peer-reviewed journal articles during this reporting period.Thediversity ofdisciplines citing our project publications at above-average rates exhibits the interdisciplinary influence of this project. The team continues to share resultsthrough an eNewsletter (256 subscribers), Twitter (1,040 followers with an average of 30,000 impressions annually), Facebook (135 followers), YouTube channel (351 views), public-facing webinars, and more presentations.AnOgallala region producersurvey, the first of its kind in the region since 1984, gathered producers' perspectives on the value of groundwater and water conservation, with participation of more than 1,100 producers from Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, with data featured in peer-reviewed publications and a project resource guide.TheTesting Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) program was launched in Nebraska in 2017wasreplicated in Oklahoma in 2019.This innovative program offers interactive real-life farm management competitions that evaluate profitability and input-use efficiency, involving 71 teams participating in Nebraska from 2017-2019, and 9 teams in the Oklahoma program.In September 2018, a7-state Master Irrigator meetinginvolving more than 30 people from the Ogallala region met in Dumas, Texas, to initiate ongoing multi-state discussions regardingreplication of the successful Master Irrigator Programoperated by the Texas North Plains Groundwater Conservation District, leading to the developmentof theColorado Master Irrigatorprogram in Colorado's Republican River Basin. The integrated hydrologic-economic-crop model (MOD$$AT) was completed and baseline scenarios were tested in Kansas and Nebraska.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Araya, A. Gowda, P. H., Golden, B., Foster A. J., Aguilar, J., Currie, R., Ciampitti, I. A., Prasad, P. V. V. (2019). Economic value and water productivity of major irrigated crops in the Ogallala aquifer region. Agricultural Water Management 214, 55??63.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Ghimire, R., V.R. Thapa, A. Cano, V. Acosta-Martinez (2019). Soil organic matter and microbial community responses to semiarid croplands and grasslands management. Applied Soil Ecology 141: 30-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2019.05.002
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Gowda, P., R. Bailey, I. Kisekka, X. Lin, and V. Uddameri (2019). Featured Series Introduction: Optimizing Ogallala Aquifer Water Use to Sustain Food Systems. Journal of the American Water Resources Association. https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12719
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Haacker, E.M.K., K.A. Cotterman, S.J. Smidt, A. D. Kendall, and D.W. Hyndman (2019). Effects of management areas, drought, and commodity prices on groundwater decline patterns across the High Plains Aquifer. Agricultural Water Management 218, 259-273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2019.04.002
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Jones, A. S., A. Andales, J. Ch�vez, C. McGovern, and G. E. B. Smith, O. David, and S. J. Fletcher (2019). Use of predictive weather uncertainties in an irrigation scheduling tool Part I: A Review of Metrics and Adjoint Methods, J. Amer. Water Resources Assoc., doi:10.1111/1752-1688.12810.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Jones, A. S., A. Andales, J. Ch�vez, C. McGovern, and G. E. B. Smith, O. David, and S. J. Fletcher (2019). Use of predictive weather uncertainties in an irrigation scheduling tool Part II: An Application of Metrics and Adjoints, J. Amer. Water Resources Assoc., doi:10.1111/1752-1688.12806.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Lauer, S. and M. Sanderson (2019). Producer Attitudes Toward Groundwater Conservation in the U.S. Ogallala-High Plains. Groundwater. DOI: 10.1111/gwat.12940
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Lo, T.H., D.R. Rudnick, and T.M. Shaver (2019). Variable-Rate Chemigation via Center Pivots. J. Irrig. Drain Eng. 145 (7): 04019012.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Suter, J.F., M. Rouhi Rad, D.T. Manning, C. Goemans, M.R Sanderson (2019). Depletion, climate, and the incremental value of groundwater. Resource and Energy Economics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2019.101143
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Lo, T.H., D.R. Rudnick, B.T. Krienke, D.M. Heeren, D.M., Y. Ge, and T.M. Shaver (2019). Water effects on optical canopy sensing for late-season site-specific nitrogen management of maize. Computers and Electronics in Agriulture 162: 154-164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2019.04.006
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Lo, T.H., D.R. Rudnick, J. Singh, H.N. Nakabuye, A. Ktimbo, D. M. Heeren, Y. Ge. (2019). Field assessment of interreplicate variability from eight electromagnetic soil moisture sensors. Agricultural Water Management doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2019.105984
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Masasi, B., S. Taghvaeian, P.H. Gowda, J. Warren, and G. Marek (2019). Simulating Soil Water Content, Evapotranspiration, and Yield of Variably Irrigated Grain Sorghum Using AquaCrop. Journal of the American Water Resources Association doi:10.1111/1752-1688.12757
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Shepler, R., J. F. Suter, D.T. Manning, and C. Goemans (2019). Private Actions and Preferences for Coordinated Groundwater Conservation in Colorados Republican River Basin. Journal of the American Water Resources Association. https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12741
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Silva, F., L. Fulginiti, R. Perrin, and K. Schoengold (2019), The Effects of Irrigation and Climate on the High Plains Aquifer: A County-Level Econometric Analysis. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 55 (5): 1085??1101. https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12781.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Singh, J., T.Lo, D.R.Rudnick, S.Irmak, and H.Blanco-Canqui (2019). Quantifying and correcting for clay content effects on soil water measurement by reflectometers. Agricultural Water Management 216 (390-399).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Thapa, V.R., R. Ghimire, B. D. Duval, and M.A. Marsalis (2019). Conservation Systems for Positive Net Ecosystem Carbon Balance in Semiarid Drylands. Agrosyst. Geosci. Environ. doi:10.2134/age2019.03.0022
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Bordovsky, J.P. (2020). Preplant and early-season cotton irrigation timing with deficit amounts using subsurface drip (SDI) systems in the Texas High Plains. Irrigation Science https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-019-00661-3
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Mitchell-McCallister, D., R.B.Williams, J. Bordovsky, J. Mustian, G. Ritchie, K. Lewis (2020). Maximizing profits via irrigation timing for capacity-constrained cotton production. Volume 229, Agricultural Water Management https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2019.105932
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Oker, T.E., I. Kisekka, I., A.Y. Sheshukov, A.Y., J. Aguilar, and D. Rogers (2020). Evaluation of dynamic uniformity and application efficiency of mobile drip irrigation.Irrigation Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-019-00648-0
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Reynolds, S., Guerrero, B., Golden, B. et al. Economic feasibility of conversion to mobile drip irrigation in the Central Ogallala region (2020). Irrigation Science https://doi-org.ezproxy2.library.colostate.edu/10.1007/s00271-020-00667-2


Progress 03/15/18 to 03/14/19

Outputs
Target Audience: Target audience includes, farmers, members of district boards and other local governance groups focused on groundwater management, extension agents, seed and equipment dealers, local and state-level policy makers, private industry representatives, crop consultants, regional NGOs and state- and national-level groups focused on soil and water conservation in the Ogallala aquifer region, university and research faculty and students internal and external to the 8 universities funded by this project, and international groups and governments. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In-person team workshops were organized this year to provide in-depth DSSAT tutorials and to address methodological challenges related to coupling the cropping and economic components of our project's integrated model (June 2018 in Fort Collins, CO, and July 2018 in Denver, CO) and to train regional teams on how to run the successfully coupled model (January 2019 in Fort Collins, CO).Our team's project manager coordinates a monthly recurring call for CAP project managers located across the U.S. to exchange project-related insights, info, and expertise. Team members from Texas Tech University have developed a new Undergraduate Certificate in Agricultural Water Management (15 credit-hours) which launched in January 2019 and whose coursework draws on several technologies advanced by the Ogallala CAP project. This project is providing partial or full support for about 30 graduate students and post-docs who have contributed to project work during the course of this project year. Many of our team's post-docs and graduate students attended our November 2018 project annual meeting, where they presented 16 posters on their work for project faculty, technical advisors, and our project Advisory Board and participated in a special interactive lunch session on developing effective science communications. Responding to a high level of interest, one of our project team's MS students who loves coding has been leading a weekly Python workshop since July 2018 attended by CSU grad students from several disciplines, including some from our team. Special issues being coordinated by our team include the involvement of some team members who are first-time editors. Communications efforts of our team were assisted this project year by a CSU agriculture communications graduate student who used her final year of school coursework to develop infographics and work on graphic design for the Ogallala Summit (white papers, summit program, and summit report). Efforts to replicate or expand on the successful TAPS and Master Irrigator programs in other states is pushing our team members to find creative ways to share and leverage knowledge and funds to support these efforts beyond the life of our project. Our project team led an ag tech oriented sessionata High School Career Day hosted by Mid-Plains Community College (McCook, NE), sharing information on educational and career opportunities in water management and agriculture. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Project research results have been widely shared at field days and professional conferences, at workshops and other meetings attended by producers, academic groups, commodity organizations, state and local policymakers including groundwater district managers, technology providers and others with an estimated reach of at least 5000 people. Our team contributed to two "transitions to dryland production" focused special symposia at University Council on Water Resources conference in June 2018 and at the American Water Resources Association July 2018 Conference. The team led a project-oriented symposium at the November, 2018 ASA/CSSA meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. We also provided a focused project panel and met with many conference goers at our project booth at the widely-attended Kansas Governor's Conference on the Future of Water in Manhattan, KS in November 2018. We also had a project booth at the January, 2019 Texas Alliance for Water Conservation annual Water College in Lubbock, which attracts about 200 attendees. Project directors Meagan Schipanski and Reagan Waskom organized a water research panel that shared information about our research related to the Ogallala aquifer at the Western Water Symposium in Denver in April, 2018, an event with high visibility. Our project newsletter (published every other month, currently with 233 subscribers and shared widely using our project's social media), provides regular updates on project progress, special events, and recent team publications to a broad audience. Nearly 900 followers now follow our project (on Twitter and Facebook combined), an increase of about 700 followers in the past year. We partnered with the Texas Water Resources Institute communications team on the publication of their Fall, 2018txH2Omagazine that focused the research and outreach activities of our project and of the USDA-ARS funded Ogallala Aquifer Program (OAP). This issue, distributed in print (3500 copies) as well as online, has been widely shared across the Ogallala aquifer region and beyond. The project team published many peer-reviewed manuscripts, proceedings papers, and posters that directly acknowledged our project funding, along with several other non-peer reviewed reports. Addition of new content to our project website to showcase project research and outreach activities has reached over 5600 users visiting our project website (in over 8300 sessions) in the period of March 15, 2018-January 28, 2019, with half of this web traffic driven by organic search terms such as "Ogallala aquifer" and the other half from direct link sharing and social media referrals. Project information was also shared through weekly project digests shared with the team and during recurring team conference calls and in-person team meetings. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In this final project year, we are positioned to leverage the networks and collaborative research teams that have been established over the first three years of our project. Key deliverables include: 1) complete the integrated crop-groundwater-economic model development and evaluate policy and management scenarios across 4 different regions in partnership with groundwater management districts: 2)Improve the capacity of irrigation scheduling tools to integrate soil moisture sensor data, infield variability for variable rate irrigation (VRI), and near-term weather forecasts; 3) complete two meta-analyses and continue field-based evaluations of irrigation methods ans soil management under varying crops; 4) collect and process coordinate UAS (drone) data from CO and NE to inform VRI management; 5) complete field sampling to assess soil health effects of transitioning from irrigated to dryland management and different tillage management systems; 6) complete regional economic (CGE) model for measures of impacts on the regional economy; 7) roll out project content from all objectivesusing web, social media, newsletter, handouts, and posters 8) facilitate development of multistate initiatives, including program modeled afterTX's North Plains Groundwater Conservation District's Master Irrigator programand expansion of the UNL TAPS program into Oklahoma; 9) organize a 2020 Ogallala Summit; 10) complete development of anonline data management portal designed to encourage data sharing and collaboration among our team members and enable long-term data storage and discoverability;and 11) lead two special journal issues in Agricultural Water Management and Irrigation Science.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Model components (cropping, economics, hydrology and climate) were successfully linked using Finney County, Kansas as an initial test case study area. Field research and outreach activities have become increasingly integrated, boosting our overall impact and the translation of science to application within and beyond the Ogallala region. Each area of our work to understand and encourage water use optimization, such as the evaluation and application of irrigation technologies, limited irrigation, transitions to dryland, and irrigation scheduling tools improvement is being conducted across a minimum of three states, enabling us to draw broader conclusions about their potential. Preliminary results from a large producer survey to learn how they value groundwater and water conservation were shared with our project team and regional stakeholders. Throughout the year, we held over 80 conference calls and used the online networking app Slack to facilitate communication among project colleagues and partners. We partnered with the Texas Water Resources Institute on a general audience-oriented magazine that focuses on the interdisciplinary, multi-state work of our project and of the USDA-NRCS funded Ogallala Aquifer Program. In partnership with the Kansas Water Office, we led the effort to organize the 2018 Ogallala Summit attended by more than 200 water management leaders from all eight Ogallala states. Collaboration among project co-PIs led to the development of several new proposals submitted for consideration by USDA-NIFA's Sustainable Agricultural Systems Program. The project team has established new partnerships which has creates opportunities to leverage additional resources and extend project impacts beyond the life of this NIFA grant. Objective 1. Team members coordinated and contributed several articles to a special issue of the Journal of the American Water Resources Association "Optimizing Ogallala Aquifer Water Use to Sustain Food Systems,"published in early 2019. The cropping, economic, and hydrologic components of our project's integrated model were successfully coupled and used to evaluate the impacts of different cropping scenarios on the aquifer using Finney County, Kansas as an initial test case. The team is currently running long-term scenarios for major crops in four study areas located across the Ogallala region to troubleshoot and further refine that portion of the integrated model. Dynamic downscaling of climate change datasets using four Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) models for the entire Ogallala aquifer region for the time period of 1995-2040 period was completed for use in conjunction with the integrated model. A study was conducted to identify drought conditions in the Ogallala aquifer region using terrestrial water storage anomalies found in GRACE datasets. Objective 2.Several studies to evaluateirrigation levels and timing are underway. For example, subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) systems under high and low well capacity management contexts are being studied in TX and OK for several major crops.Other field studies in TX, KS, and CO evaluated the effects of crop choice, soil, and residue management on water use efficiency and crop productivity. For example, a multi-year study in CO has demonstrated that reducing evaporative losses by maintaining residues is important for maximizing precipitation and irrigation water use efficiencies.Using a coordinated sampling approach across CO, KS, TX, OK, and NM,our team is quantifying the short-term and long-term effects on soil health of transitioning from irrigated to dryland management.Work by our team continues to improve publicly available,free irrigation scheduling toolsWISE, DIEM, KanSched, and iCrop. DIEM™ improvements include faster access and computation speed, the addition and improvement of a mobile application, calculation corrections, and modification of yield functions as new field data has become available.Our team members in CO and NE are evaluating data from aerial and soil-based sensors at different temporal and spatial resolutions to determine their suitability for site-specific management of irrigation and nitrogen fertilizer. Field research to compare soil moisture sensors identified that the relative sensitivity of soil sensors to varying soil moisture is consistent but that differences of sensor factory calibrations is an important factor should be considered when they are deployed. A meta-analysis of irrigation technologies and management approaches spanning the entire region was completed and review of this data compiled is underway. Objective 3. Work to develop computable general equilibrium (CGE) models was initiated in CO, NE, and TX that will be used to evaluate regional economic effects of the adoption of different cropping and water management practice and policies. A quantitative survey to support CGE model is being prepared to gather input from TX producers similar to a producer survey already conducted by project team members in CO. Preliminary analysis of valuation data from the six-state socio-economic survey fielded in December 2017/January 2018 were shared at the Risk and Profit Conference at KSU, the Great Plains Water Conference at UNL, and at the Kansas Governor's Water Conference and at our team's annual meeting.Research updates on the economic impacts of voluntary groundwater reduction in the Sheridan 6 LEMA in northwest Kansas were shared with several audiences andsubmitted as a manuscript about non-market values for groundwater. Qualitative, immersive fieldwork to interview producers in western Kansas's Groundwater Management Districts 1 and 3 was conducted for two weeks in the summer of 2018. Labor-intensive work of transcribing multi-hour socio-economic interviews is in progress. Data were gathered on how Kansas's Wichita County Water Conservation Area succeeded in creating the first county-wide, voluntary group effort to conserve groundwater. Objective 4. Our project outreach team was directly involved in organizing and/or presenting at more than 75 events in and beyond the Ogallala region, reaching a wide range of audiences including producers, policy makers, commodity groups and technology providers, groundwater management district leaders, and others. In response to the Fall 2017/Spring 2018 drought, we partnered with Southern Plains Climate Hub and NOAA/NIDIS to co-host a drought, water, and wildfire-focused listening session focused on delivery of USDA-supported programs and resources in the Oklahoma Panhandle in May 2018 attended by producers and NRCS and FSA staff.In 2018, the innovative UNL-TAPS profitability and input-use efficiency focused competition (www.taps.unl.edu) expanded to add a sorghum competition in addition to the corn competition, with participation from individuals and teams from KS and NE. Analysis of quantitative and qualitative data collected through TAPS on effective, efficient crop and technology management was shared widely at meetings across the Ogallala aquifer region, the U.S. and internationally.The 2018 Ogallala Summit encouraged the development of interstate stakeholder networks and led to extensive exchange of information on effective, profitable water management and conservation strategies. A summit report distilling the input received during the summit's interactive facilitated workshops was distributed to all participants, shared online and presented to high-level state groups such as the Western States Water Council. Several internal and external webinars were organized by our team this year to feature our project's work and connect our project team with external colleagues doing complimentary work.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Araya, A. I. Kisekka, P.H. Gowda, and P.V. Varaprasad. 2018. Grain sorghum production functions under different irrigation capacities. Agricultural Water Management, 203:261-271. doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2018.03.010
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Araya, A., P.V.V. Prasad, P.H. Gowda, I. Kisekka, and A.J. Foster (2019). Yield and Water Productivity of Winter Wheat under Various Irrigation Capacities. Journal of the American Water Resources Association. 1??14. https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12721.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Chen, Y., G.W. Marek, T.H. Marek, J.E. Moorhead, K.R. Heflin, D.K. Brauer, P.H. Gowda, and R. Srinivasan. 2018. Assessment of alternative agricultural land use options for extending the availability of the Ogallala aquifer in the Northern High Plains of Texas. Hydrology, 5, 53; doi:10.3390/hydrology5040053, 16p.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Haacker, E.M.K., V. Sharda, A.M. Cano, R.A. Hrozencik, A. N?nez, Z. Zambreski, S. Nozari, G.E.B. Smith, L. Moore, S. Sharma, P. Gowda, C. Ray, M. Schipanski, and R. Waskom (2019). Transition Pathways to Sustainable Agricultural Water Management: A Review of Integrated Modeling Approaches. Journal of the American Water Resources Association. https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12722.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Sharda, V., P.H. Gowda, G. Marek, I. Kisekka, C. Ray, and P. Adhikari (2019). Simulating the Impacts of Irrigation Levels on Soybean Production in Texas High Plains to Manage Diminishing Groundwater Levels. Journal of the American Water Resources Association https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12720.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Thapa, V.R., R. Ghimire, M. Mikha, J. Idowu, and M. Marsalis. 2018. Land use systems effects on soil health in drylands. Agricultural and Environmental Letters. Doi: 10.2134/ael2018.05.0022.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Bhandari, K.B., C.P. West, V. Acosta-Martinez, J. Cotton, and A. Cano. 2018. Soil microbial communities, enzyme activities, and total carbon and nitrogen as affected by diverse grasses and grass-alfalfa in pastures. Appl. Soil Ecol. 132:179-186. doi:10.1016/j.apsoil.2018.09.002
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Bhandari, Krishna B., C.P. West, S.D. Longing, C.P. Brown, and P.E. Green. 2018. Comparison of arthropod communities among different forage types on the Texas High Plains using pitfall traps. Crop Forage Turfgrass Management Vol. 4(2) doi: 10.2134/cftm2018.01.0005; Date posted: April 20, 2018.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Cano, A., A. Nunez, V. Acosta-Martinez, M. Schipanski, R. Ghimire, C. Rice, and C. West.2018. Current knowledge and future research directions of soil health and water conservation in the Ogallala Aquifer region. Geoderma. 238: 109-118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2018.04.027.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Djaman, K., D.R. Rudnick, Y.D. Moukoumbi, A. Sow, and S. Irmak. 2019. Actual evapotranspiration and crop coefficients of irrigated lowland rice (Oryza sativa L.) under semiarid climate. Italian Journal of Agronomy. DOI: 10.4081/ija.2019.1059. (Accepted and In-Press)
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Duval B., R. Ghimire, M.D. Hartman and M.P. Marsalis. 2018. Water and nitrogen management effects on semiarid sorghum production and soil trace gas flux under future climate. PlosOne 13(4): e0195782.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Ghimire, R., B. Ghimire, A.O. Mesbah, M. ONeill, J. Idowu, S. Angadi, and M.K. Shukla. 2018. Current status, opportunities, and challenges of cover cropping for sustainable dryland farming in the Southern Great Plains. Journal of Crop Improvement. 32: 579-598. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427528.2018.1471432.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ghimire, B. R. Ghimire, D. VanLeeuwen and A.O. Mesbah. 2017. Cover crop residue inputs and quality effects on soil organic matter mineralization. Sustainability, 9, 2316. http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/12/2316
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Lo, T.H., D.R. Rudnick, C.A. Burr, M.C. Stockton, and R. Werle (2018). Approaches to evaluating grower irrigation and fertilizer nitrogen amount and timing. Agricultural Water Management https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2018.11.010
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Murley, C.B., S. Sharma, J.G. Warren, D. B. Arnall, and W. R. Raun (2018). Yield response of corn and grain sorghum to row offsets on subsurface drip laterals. Agricultural Water Management. 208: 357-362. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2018.06.038
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Oker, T.E., I., Kisekka, A.Y. Sheshukov, J. Aguilar, and D.H. Rogers (2018). Evaluation of maize production under mobile drip irrigation. Agricultural Water Management, 210:11-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2018.07.047
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Rudnick, D.R., T. Lo, J. Singh, R. Werle, F. Mu�oz-Arriola, T. Shaver, C.A. Burr, and T.J. Dorr (2018). Performance assessment of factory and field calibrations for electromagnetic sensors in a loam soil. Agricultural Water Management 203 (2018) 272??276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2018.02.036
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Rudnick, D. R., Irmak, S., West, C., Kisekka, I., Marek, T. H., Schneekloth, J., Mitchell McCallister, D., Sharma, V., Djaman, K., Aguilar, J., Ch�vez, J. L., Schipanski, M., Rogers, D. H., Schlegel, A. (2019). Deficit irrigation management of maize in the High Plains Aquifer region: A review. Journal of the American Water Resources Association. https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12723
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Schlegel, A.J., Y. Assefa, L.A. Haag, C.R. Thompson, and L.R. Stone. (2018). Long-term tillage on yield and water use of grain sorghum and winter wheat. Agron. J. 110 (1) 269-280. doi:10.2134/agronj2017.02.0104.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Schlegel, A. J., Y. Assefa, L. A. Haag, C. R. Thompson, and L. R. Stone. (2019). Yield and Overall Productivity under Long-Term Wheat-Based Crop Rotations: 2000 through 2016. Agron. J. 111:111. doi:10.2134/agronj2018.03.0171
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Singh, J., T. Lo, D.R. Rudnick, T.J. Dorr, C.A. Burr, R. Werle, T.M. Shaver, and F. Mu�oz-Arriola (2018). Performance assessment of factory and field calibrations for electromagnetic sensors in a loam soil. Agricultural Water Management, 196:87-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2017.10.020
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: West, C.P., and L.L. Baxter. 2018. Water footprint of beef production on Texas High Plains pasture. Water International 43:887-891. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2018.1515574
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Butler, E., N. Howell, B. Guerrero, and O. Mulamba. 2018. Enhancing Crop Acreage Estimation within a Semi-arid Watershed using Statistical Assessments/Techniques. Agronomy Journal. September 6, 2018 110(6):1-8.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Lauer, S., M. Sanderson, D. Manning, J. Suter, A. Hrozencik, B. Guerrero, and B. Golden. Values and Groundwater Management in the Ogallala Aquifer Region. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. September/October 2018 73(5):593-600; doi:10.2489/jswc.73.5.593.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2018 Citation: Chen, Y., J.E. Moorhead, T.H. Marek, G.H. Marek, P.H. Gowda, D.K. Brauer, R. Srinivasan, Q. Xue, and K. Heflin. 2018. Multisite evaluation of an improved SWAT irrigation scheduling algorithm for the Southern Great Plains. Environmental Modeling and Software (in review).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2018 Citation: Zhang, Y., X. Lin, P.H. Gowda, D. Brown, Z. Zambreski, and S. Kutikoff. 2018. Recent Ogallala Aquifer Region drought conditions observed by terrestrial water storage anomalies from GRACE. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (In review).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2019 Citation: Jones, A.S., Andales, A.A., Chavez, J.L., McGovern, C., Smith, G.E.B., David, O., Fletcher, S.J. An assessment of Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) quantitative precipitation forecast (QPF) uncertainties for use with the WISE irrigation scheduling tool. Journal of the American Water Resources Association
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Manning, D.T, and J.F. Suter. 2019. Production Externalities and the Gains from Management in a Spatially Explicit Aquifer. Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 44(1): 194-211.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Bordovsky, J. P. 2018. Low Energy Precision Application (LEPA) Irrigation Method, a Forty-year Review. 2018 ASABE Annual International Meeting 1801598. doi:10.13031/aim.201801598 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Sima, N. Q., A. A. Andales, R. D. Harmel, L. Ma, and T. J. Trout. 2019. Evaluating RZWQM2-CERES-Maize and water production functions for predicting irrigated maize yield and biomass in eastern Colorado. Transactions of the ASABE 62(1). https://doi.org/10.13031/trans.13045
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Bhattarai, B. S. Singh, C.P. West, G.L. Ritchie, and C. Trostle 2018. Forage production potential of sorghum, pearl millet and corn under different irrigation regimes. 5-8 Nov. Annual meetings abstracts. ASA, CSSA, and SSSA, Madison, WI. Poster.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Bhandari, Krishna, C.P. West, S.B Longing, V. Acosta-Martinez, and D. Klein. 2018. Arthropod and soil microbial communities in forage-livestock systems. 5-8 Nov. Annual meetings abstracts. ASA, CSSA, and SSSA, Madison, WI.


Progress 03/15/17 to 03/14/18

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audience includes, farmers, members of district boards and other local governance groups focused on groundwater management, extension agents, seed and equipment dealers, local and state-level policy makers, private industry representatives, crop consultants, regional NGOs and state- and national-level groups focused on soil and water conservation in the Ogallala aquifer region, university and research faculty and students internal and external to the 8 universities funded by this project, and international groups and governments. Changes/Problems:Our work plans did not change in Year 2 and we did not face major issues or limitations. Instead, we have taken advantage of new opportunities due to staffing and team member changes and as new research ideas emerged through collaborations. For example, UNL and CSU collaborators were struggling to identify suitable students for the project and decided to pool resources to hire a shared postdoctoral position. The premature departure of a CSU student led to a new hire in November 2017 of a research associate who will carry out the work. We added a new PD at TAMU and gained new collaborations with the Water Center at OSU and with UC-Davis due the movement of team members to different institutions. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project currently has 23 active graduate students and post-docs, many of whom attended the Nov 2017 project annual meeting, where they presented ignite-style talks on 10 posters for project faculty and exchanged with our highly-engaged project Advisory Board members. Many students are receiving specialized training as part of completing their thesis work, for example, in the use and theory of crop canopy sensors, model development, Python and Fortran coding, soil sensor calibration, data processing, and survey development. Three 1-day in-person workshops were held in Lubbock, TX; Lincoln, NE, and Fort Collins, CO involving Co-PIs, their post-docs and students from Objectives 1, 2 and 3 focused on this integrated modeling effort. Since December, 2017 the PIs, post-docs and students involved in the integrated modeling effort have held teleconferences every two weeks to ensure progress and effective communication in coupling pieces of the integrated model together. Post-docs and students developed a project Slack workspace to foster cross-disciplinary participation, including the development of a review paper on groundwater modeling to be submitted early in Project Year 3. Several project team collaborators and/or their post-docs and students attended conferences and other meetings related to their work with our project, including: AAEA Water Resources and Policy Conference, Washington, DC (March, 2017); NM Aquifer Conference, Albuquerque, NM (July, 2017), the Soil Health Institute's 2nd annual meeting, St. Louis, MO (July, 2017), The National Diversity in STEM Conference, Salt Lake City, UT (Oct, 2017), APSIM Training Course: Evaluating Production and Environmental Performance of Cropping Systems with APSIM, Ames, Iowa (June, 2017) University of Washington's Geohackweek, Seattle, WA (Sept, 2017). One project faculty received IRB re certification through WTAMU facilitated through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative. One project faculty member received LI-COR eddy covariance training. An interactive session titled "Effective Science Communications," was organized and sponsored by this project for the June, 2017 University Council on Water Resources (UCOWR) meeting in Fort Collins. Several OWCAP students were among the audience of more than 50 people who participated in the session. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?OWCAP collaborators from all Objectives have shared project-related research results and other information with OWCAP's broad audience. For example, project team members gave more than 180 presentations at a wide range of venues including Extension trainings, producer-focused conferences, Field Days and field walks, at workshops and forums, research-focused conferences, and at other events, reaching more than 8000 people. OWCAP team members also shared information about the project while visiting with producers in the course of doing on-farm research or research related to producer interests, as well as through extensive networking with representatives from non-profit organizations, USDA's Climate Hubs, collaborators supported by the USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program, NRCS representatives, groundwater management district groups and the lawyers who represent them, commodity group leaders, agricultural lenders, and others. OWCAP collaborators created several excellent opportunities to gather colleagues and partners from different states together to promote exchange research results and perspectives on water management for diverse audiences. For example, the June, 2017 UCOWR special session on aquifer management involved many OWCAP team members who presented along with colleagues from the USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program. In another example, OWCAP collaborators from OK, TX, CO, and KS were invited to present on their research at the West Central Research and Extension Center August 2017 Field Day in North Platte, NE. With the Southwest Climate Hub, the OWCAP team held a Forum in Clovis, NM on April 26, 2017 for farmers, ranchers and others with presentations focused on mitigating drought-related risks by the NM state climatologist, representatives from the National Weather Service, the National Drought Mitigation Center and others. Project team members published 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts, along with 1 fact sheet, 1 technical bulletin and several other non-peer reviewed reports. 12 additional peer-review articles were submitted, and others are currently in progress. The project held 3 public-facing webinars and two internal facing webinars featuring OWCAP research, collaborations and partnership activities. The project team contributed 11 feature articles to fill the November/December 2017 special issue of Colorado Water about the Ogallala aquifer. This issue was shared widely across the Ogallala aquifer region and beyond, on social media as well as through the distribution of 2800 print copies. The project website, which launched in September, 2017 has been attracting ~ 60 unique page views per day. The website provides links to recordings of project-led webinars and other events, the project newsletter, project-related announcements, as well as other resources and has been linked to from 19 domains. Social media accounts, which launched in February 2017, have attracted a modest following of producers, precision ag specialists, government representatives, researchers, students and others. (Facebook: www.facebook.com/Ogallalawater.org) Twitter: twitter.com/Ogallala_water). The project's Twitter platform is more active, attracting ~20 new followers per month on average. The project has begun posting external facing newsletters once every two months that reach 151 subscribers via email and a broad audience though social media posts. Project information was also shared through extensive internal communications that included emailed project digests and recurring meetings. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Research efforts over the next year will result in finalization of the integrated model prototype and then application of the model throughout the Ogallala aquifer region. In addition, results from meta-analyses and field experiments will inform the identification of best management strategies that will be integrated into future scenario modeling and communicated to diverse audiences. Specifically, collection of cropping and economic data and coding required to calibrate and link parts of the DSSAT-SWAT-MODFLOW model for runs using historic and downscaled future climate data (already collected) will be completed. This integrated model will be applied first to a test case example in Finney County, KS in April, 2018 before being applied to regions in Nebraska, Colorado, and Texas. Feedback on the model framework will be solicited from user groups (e.g., groundwater management group representatives), before being run in different watersheds/sub-regions. Field and laboratory studies on a) irrigation management technologies; b) limited irrigation management systems; and c) soil health will begin generating results and outputs. Work on improving and comparing irrigation scheduling tools will continue, including work to achieve full near real-time weather data integration with CSU's WISE irrigation scheduling tool. Crop budgets for regional economic impact models will be further developed and shared with broader team. Work on computational general equilibrium (CGE) models for NE will continue and will be initiated for TX. Preliminary analysis of valuation data from socio-economic survey fielded in December 2017/January 2018 will be conducted. A post-doc who will be a primary contact for the integrated modeling and regional economic modeling efforts in Colorado and Nebraska will be hired and trained. Members of all project Objective teams have journal articles including meta-analyses and review papers, fact sheets, and technical bulletins in progress, including reports on data analysis from several multi-year field studies. A major focus for the team during the next reporting period will be to distill, package and distribute content resulting from project research by developing and sharing print and digital resources through the project website, via the project newsletter published six times per year, through webinars held ~once per month, through social media and mass media coverage, and by providing handouts and presentations at in-person events and workshops held across the Ogallala aquifer region. We plan to engage in working on creative packaging of content (infographics, producer-focused technical bulletins, etc.) to compliment already existing resources. We will collaborate with the Rio Grande Coordinated Agriculture Project and the Texas Water Resources Institute on an issue of TXH2O to be published in Fall, 2018. We will strengthen our relationships with external partners including with USDA's Climate Hubs, NRCS representatives, groundwater management district leaders and engage in continued networking with other stakeholder groups including precision ag specialists, crop advisors, commodity leaders and FFA students and others. Using input from project partners, we will develop and share core messaging on economic tradeoffs related to conservation and water use efficiency. For example, OWCAP collaborators will contribute to a special trackon making transitions from full irrigation for the Universities Council on Water Resources Annual Conference June 26-28, 2018 in Pittsburgh. Water Institute directors in Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma will be contacted to participate in a special Ogallala session at the American Water Resources Association meeting, November 4-8 in Baltimore, MD. Project collaborators will contribute to an Ogallala aquifer-focused Climate-Food-Water Nexus series to be published in the Journal of American Water Resources Association. We will organize and help lead a 350-person 8-state Ogallala Summit aimed at encouraging communication and collaboration among key state stakeholders and leaders in water management. Center Pivot Irrigation field day(s) will be conducted; tentative locations are Bushland, Texas and Garden City, Kansas. These events will be conducted and marketed as multi-state events, and they will target a range of audiences, including agricultural producers, policy makers, agency personnel, research and extension faculty, irrigation industry and agribusiness representatives. We will continue to support the Testing Ag Performance Solutions (taps.unl.edu) program in its second year as it expands to include a sorghum competition in addition to one involving corn, including working with project collaborators and partners to replicate the TAPS model in other states. OWCAP's data management framework will be built in PY3, using a range of test cases selected to support and track the team's data sharing and encourage ongoing collaborative engagement. Once operational, the full team will be trained on how to upload data sets to the framework which will be accessible as an access-limited (secure) website portal linked to from the main OWCAP project website.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Progress was made on key activities targeting agricultural water use optimization in the Ogallala Aquifer Region (OAR) to sustain food production systems, rural communities, and ecosystem services. The project's integrated model is on track to be tested in April 2018. Along with the project Advisory Board, collaborators refined scenarios for use with the integrated model to evaluate the potential impacts of different management decisions and water use policies on the aquifer. Field research activities ranged from the evaluation of irrigation technologies and soil moisture sensors to innovations in dryland cropping systems and soil health. Baseline perspectives on current attitudes and approaches towards managing water-related challenges were captured by surveying groundwater management district leaders across the OAR. The project's website (ogallalawater.org) was launched along with social media accounts and a public-facing project newsletter. A data management framework was conceptualized and initiated. Team collaborations were facilitated through two full team meetings, more than 80 recurring teleconferences, weekly e-news digests, interdisciplinary in-person meetings, and a Slack workspace used by graduate students and postdocs. A survey of project faculty and post-docs by the project evaluation team indicated that the project is responsible for having fostered many new collaborations across institutions and disciplines. Objective 1: Linked MODFLOW and SWAT models were calibrated for watersheds in the Central and Southern OAR. Validation and calibration of DSSAT models for ET and crop yield in these sub-regions was completed or initiated for several crops (corn, sorghum, winter wheat, alfalfa, soybean, corn transitioning to cotton) for both dryland and irrigated systems. The project's integrated modeling methodology was refined and its coding is nearly complete. This integrated model, which couples hydrologic, cropping, economic and climate data will be applied to an initial test region (Finney county, KS) early in Project Year 3. Once tested, the model will evaluate impacts of hypothetical cropping, irrigation, economic and policy-related scenarios on the aquifer in sub-regions/watersheds that represent the range of irrigation capacity and the variety of irrigation and cropping systems employed across the OAR (e.g., cotton grown in the Double Mountain Fork (DMF) watershed; corn, sorghum and winter wheat, and corn transitioning to cotton in the Palo Duro Watershed). Pre-processed historical and predictive climate datasets were generated for use in the project's integrated model through experiments using historical climate data to identify environmental factors driving crop yield variability and through dynamic downscaling of General Circulation Model outputs, respectively. Objective 2: Research activities focused on cross-state collaborations in 4 areas: 1) irrigation management technologies; 2) irrigation scheduling tools; 3) limited irrigation management systems; and 4) soil health. Within irrigation management technologies, project activities included: a) evaluation of soil moisture sensors for suitability for site-specific irrigation and fertilizer management; b) a new collaboration between CSU and UNL researchers to construct a baseline VRI prescription using UAS data for potential integration into full or deficit irrigation systems; c) publication of results from Mobile Drip Irrigation (MDI) experiments that indicated MDI reduced evaporation by 35% relative to in-canopy spray with no difference in crop yields; d) initiation of subsurface drip deficit irrigation research for corn, wheat, and grain sorghum (OK) and cotton (TX). Improvements to several irrigation scheduling tools were made. For example, near real-time data from aWhere, accessed from a cloud-stored database, were integrated into a module for use with the WISE scheduling tool that will be available for other tools. The DIEM scheduler user interface functionality was improved with expanded cropping scenario options, new crop functions, and a mobile platform. A mobile platform developed for a new version of KanSched3 and a beta version of iCrop for Corn was released (https://erams.com/icrop/). Tool algorithms were compared to identify ways to further improve each tool. Data were collected across multiple crops and irrigation levels to generate water use production functions to validate crop models for Objective 1. For cotton, preliminary results suggest that rotations with forage sorghum, safflower, or sunflower had no consistent effect on beginning soil water content or lint yield compared to continuous cotton at all irrigation levels, but cotton had greater gross return per unit of irrigation. In addition, limited irrigation trials evaluated irrigation strategy effects on grain sorghum yield, irrigation water use efficiency. Soil health-related experiments focused on a) effects of cover crops and reduced-tillage on soil water, nutrients and organic carbon; b) evaluating soil changes during the transition to dryland systems; and c) the relationship between irrigation regimes and soil microbial community composition. Synthesis efforts included: a meta-analysis comparing irrigation technology relative effects on water use efficiency; a soil health review paper; and a deficit irrigation research review. Objective 3: Progress was made on all aspects of developing a dynamic framework integrating four classes of models: 1) baseline data was collected for local agricultural decision models; 2) dynamic economic-groundwater models are nearly complete and include preliminary crop production functions; 3) crop budgets for regional economic impact models are in development; 4) the computational general equilibrium (CGE) model for NE was initiated;and 5) data sources are still being identified for social analysis models. The team is currently working on how to account for residual soil moisture and multi-year rotation effects of different cropping and irrigation management scenarios within the OMEGA model. ln collaboration with Objectives 1 and 2, the Objective 3 team has implemented a work plan to link its dynamic economic-groundwater model with the integrated hydrologic, cropping and climate model. A survey instrument designed to assess how farmers trade off profit and other non-monetary benefits related to water conservation was developed with input and feedback from Objective 3 members, Advisory Board members, project leadership team members, and other stakeholders and was pre-tested in the field with Kansas producers. A review paper on the role of values in groundwater management in the OAR was submitted. Objective 4: Technical recommendations for water conservation practices were shared at field days, producer-oriented conferences, and professional meetings across the OAR, the U.S. and abroad. This included innovative approaches to engaging producers, industry, and academic partners in co-learning about irrigation management and use of emerging technologies, such as through the UNL Testing Agricultural Performance Systems first annual irrigation competition. Results were communicated across several outlets. For example, collaborators contributed to a special Ogallala aquifer track for the 2017 Universities Council on Water Resources Annual Conference. Social media accounts and website were launched to highlight activities and develop trust for our project "brand." Team members gave invited talks at conferences, field days and forums for other team institutions, which encouraged cross-pollination of ideas among academic, industry, and producer/landowner communities. Planning was initiated for an Ogallala Summit to be held in April 2018 aimed at fostering collaboration between the states in theme areas of science/data, successful practices, and policies supporting efforts to optimize water use and conserve water.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Adhikari, P., Gowda, P.H., Marek, G.W., Brauer, D.K., Kisekka, I., Northup, B. and Rocateli, A. (2017), Calibration and Validation of CSM-CROPGRO-Cotton Model Using Lysimeter Data in the Texas High Plains. Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education, 162: 6178. doi:10.1111/j.1936-704X.2017.03260.x
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Almas, L., B. Guerrero, D. Lust, H. Fatima, R. Tewari, and R. Taylor. (2017).�Extending the Economic Life of the Ogallala Aquifer with Water Conservation Policies in the Texas Panhandle. Journal of Water Resource and Protection (JWARP), 9.3(2017):255-270.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Brazil, L., Grigg, N., Kummerow, C. and Waskom, R. (2017). Water and Climate: Charting the path to a sustainable future. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000832
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ghimire, B. R. Ghimire, A.O. Mesbah, and D. VanLeeuwen. 2017. Cover crop residue inputs and quality effects on soil organic matter mineralization, Sustainability,�9(12), 2316; doi:10.3390/su9122316
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Golden, B., and B. Guerrero. (2017). The Economics of Local Enhanced Management Areas in Southwest Kansas. Universities Council on Water Resources Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education. 162 (December 2017):100-111. http://ucowr.org/files/Journal/Issues/162/162_Golden_and_Guerrero.pdf
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Hrozencik, R. A., Manning, D. T., Suter, J., Goemans, C. and Bailey, R. (2017),�The Heterogeneous Impacts of Groundwater Management Policies in the Republican River Basin of Colorado.�Water Resour. Res. . doi:10.1002/2017WR020927
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Kisekka, I., T. Oker, G. Nguyen, J. Aguilar and Rogers, D. (2017). Revisiting Precision Mobile Drip Irrigation under Limited Water. Irrigation Science. pp1-18. DOI 10.1007/s00271-017-0555-7
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Kisekka, I., A. Schlegel, L. Ma, P.H. Gowda, and P.V.V. Prasad. (2017). Optimizing preplant irrigation for maize under limited water in the High Plains. Agricultural Water Management 187 (2017) 154-163.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Lin, X, J. Harrington, Jr., I. Ciampitti, P. Gowda, D. Brown, and I. Kisekka, 2017: Kansas trends and changes in temperature, precipitation, drought, and frost-free days from the 1890s to 2015. J. Contemporary Water Research & Education, 162, 18-30. DOI: 10.1111/j.1936-704X.2017.03257.x.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Linker, R., and Kisekka, I. (2017). Model-Based Deficit Irrigation of Maize in Kansas. Transactions of the ASABE 60(6): 2011-2022 (doi: 10.13031/trans.12341)
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Araya, A., I. Kisekka, P.V. Vara Prasad, and P. Gowda. (2017). Evaluating Optimum Limited Irrigation Management Strategies for Corn using Crop Simulation Models. J. Irrig. Drain Eng., 2017, 143(10): 04017041
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Araya, A. I. Kisekka, X. Lin, V. Prasad, P. Gowda, C. Rice, and A. Andales. (2017). Evaluating impact of future climate change on irrigated maize production in Kansas. Climate Risk Management, http://dx.doi.org/101016/j.crm.2017.08.001. 17, 139-154.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Baxter, L. L., C. P. West, C. P. Brown, and P. E. Green. (2017). Stocker Beef Production on Low-Water-Input Systems in Response to Legume Inclusion: I. Forage and Animal Responses. Crop Sci. 57:2294-2302. doi:10.2135/cropsci2017.02.0112
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Monger, R., J.F. Suter, D.T. Manning, J.P. Schneekloth. 2018. Retiring Land to Save Water: Participation in Colorados Republican River Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. Land Economics 94(1): 36-51.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Schlegel, A.J., Y. Assefa, L.A. Haag, C.R. Thompson, and L.R. Stone. (2018). Long-term tillage on yield and water use of grain sorghum and winter wheat. Agron. J. doi:10.2134/agronj2017.02.0104.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Singh, J., T.H. Lo, D.R. Rudnick, T.J. Dorr, C.A. Burr, R. Werle, T.M. Shaver, and F. Mu�oz-Arriola. (2018). Performance assessment of factory and field calibrations for electromagnetic sensors in a loam soil. Agricultural Water Management 196: 87-98.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Uddameri, V., Singaraju, S., Karim, A., Gowda, P., Bailey, R. and Schipanski, M. (2017), Understanding Climate-Hydrologic-Human Interactions to Guide Groundwater Model Development for Southern High Plains. Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education, 162: 7999. doi:10.1111/j.1936-704X.2017.03261.x
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Uddameri, V. and D. Reible, (2017); Food?energy?water nexus to mitigate sustainability challenges in a groundwater reliant agriculturally dominant environment (GRADE); Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy; DOI: 10.1002/ep.12726
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Gowda, P., Bailey, R. Kisekka, I., Lin, X., and Schipanski, M. An integrated modeling framework for investigating water management practices in the Ogallala Aquifer Region. Colorado Water, Nov/Dec 2017, pg 36-37.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Schipanski, M., Auvermann, B., Gowda, P., Guererro, B., Kremen, A., Porter, D., Rice, C., Sanderson, M., Wagner, K., Warren, J., West, C., and Waskom, R. The Future of the Ogallala Aquifer: We can measure it, but can we manage it? 2017). Colorado Water, Nov/Dec 2017, pg 2-7.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Waskom, R., and Kremen, A. Timelime: Development of the High Plains Aquifer System. (2017). Colorado Water, Nov/Dec 2017, pg 8-11.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Lauer, S., and Sanderson, M. "We're civilized people out here": Managing groundwater toether in Western Kansas. (2017). Colorado Water, Nov/Dec 2017, pg 16-17.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Hrozencik, A. Stakeholder-driven research in the Republican River Basin. (2017). Colorado Water, Nov/Dec 2017, pg 18-20.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Macaulay, A., and Kremen, A. More on the Water Preservation Partnership and its collaboration with CSU. (2017). Colorado Water, Nov/Dec 2017, pg 21-23.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Auvermann, B., and West, C. Ogallala region livestock systems. 2(017). Colorado Water, Nov/Dec 2017, pg 33-35.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Vestal, M.K., Guerrero, B.L., Golden, B.B. and Harkey, L.D. (2017) The Impact of Discount Rate and Price on Intertemporal Groundwater Models in Southwest Kansas. Journal of Water Resource and Protection, 9, 745-759. https://doi.org/10.4236/jwarp.2017.97049
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Castle, A., Smith, M., Stulp, S., Udall, B. and Waskom, R. 2017. Where now with Alternative Transfer Methods in Colorado? Colorado Water institute Special Report 31. http://www.cwi.colostate.edu/publications/SR/31.pdf
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Guerrero, B., B. Golden, K. Schoengold, J. Suter, A. Stoecker, C. Goemans, and D. Manning. Groundwater Laws across the Ogallala Aquifer Region. Colorado Water, Nov/Dec 2017.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Jones, A.S., Andales, A., Ch�vez, J., McGovern, C., and Smith, G.E.B.. Weather Data Integration into Irrigation Scheduling Tools. Colorado Water, Nov/Dec 2017, pg 24-28.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Rudnick, D.R., Ch�vez, J., Aguilar, J., Irmak, S., Bordovsky, J. and Burr, C.A. Advances in Irrigation Technology. (2017). Colorado Water, Nov/Dec 2017, pg 29-32.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Cano, A., N��ez, A., Acosta-Martinez, V., Schipanski, M., Ghimire, R., and Rice, C. Linking soil health to water conservation in the Ogallala aquifer region. (2017). Colorado Water, Nov/Dec 2017, pg 38-40.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Andales, A.A. 2017. Tactical irrigation management using the WISE online tool. In: Proceedings of the 29th Annual Central Plains Irrigation Conference, Burlington, CO., February 21-22, 2017, pp 95-99. (24 producers, crop advisors, and researchers attended across 3 sessions) https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/irrigate/oow/p17/Andales_17.pdf
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Manning, D.T., Salvador L., Comas, L.H., Trout, T.J., Flynn, N. and Fonte, S.J. (2018) Economic viability of deficit irrigation in the Western US. Agricultural Water Management 196: 114-123.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Manning, Dale T., Christopher Goemans, and Alexander Maas*(2017). Producer responses to surface water availability and implications for climate change adaptation. Land Economics.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Moberly, J. T., R. M. Aiken, X. Lin, A. J. Schlegel, R. L. Baumhardt, and R. C. Schwartz, 2017: Crop water production functions of grain sorghum and winter wheat. J. Contemporary Water Research & Education, 162, 42-60. DOI: 10.1111/j.1936-704X.2017.03259.x.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Andales, A.A., Capurro, M.C., Smith, G.E.B., Gowda, P.H., Kisekka, I. Calibration of CERES-Maize against precision weighing lysimeter data under semi-arid conditions of eastern Colorado. 2017 Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR)/ National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR) Annual Conference, June 13, 2017, Fort Collins, CO (Oral Presentation). - This was presented to a national audience of researchers.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Andales, A.A. and Ch�vez, J.L. Quantifying Crop Water Requirements using the Water Irrigation Scheduler for Efficient Application (WISE App) in northeast Colorado. (Abstract and oral presentation) 2017 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) Annual International Meeting, July 16-19, 2017, Spokane, WA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Bordovsky, J.P. 2017. SDI research for improved row crop production in the Texas South Plains. 2017 W3128 Multi-State Micro-Irrigation Annual Meeting. Orlando, FL. Nov. 5-6, 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Bordovsky, J.P., 2017. Dashboard for irrigation efficiency management (DIEM). 2017 Irrigation Association Technical Conference. Orlando, FL. Nov. 6-10, 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Chavez, J. Use of an unmanned aerial system in aiding irrigation scheduling, at the 2017 4-States Irrigation Council Meeting, Fort Collins Hilton, Fort Collins, CO. January 12, 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Ghimire R., B. Ghimire, V.B. Thapa, and A.O. Mesbah. 2017. Soil C and N cycling under reduced tillage and cover crops in the southern High Plains agroecosystems. ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meetings, Tampa, FL. October 24, 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Jones, A. S., A. A. Andales, C. McGovern, G. E. B. Smith, O. David, and S. J. Fletcher, 2017: Integrated decision tools for sustainable watershed/ground water and crop health using predictive weather, remote sensing, and irrigation decision tools, AGU Fall Meetin.New Orleans, LA. December 11-15, 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Kothari, K., Ale, S., Bordovsky, J., Hoogenboom, G., and Munster, C. 2017. Assessment of climate change impacts and evaluation of adaptation strategies for grain sorghum and cotton production in the Texas High Plains. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. Dec. 11-15, New Orleans, LA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Lo, T.H., D.R. Rudnick, and T.M. Shaver. 2017. Variable rate fertigation: Opportunities and investigations in west central Nebraska. ASA, CSSA, & SSSA International Annual Meetings: Managing Global Resource for a Secure Future. Tampa, Florida. October 22-25, 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Singh, J., T.H. Lo, D.R. Rudnick, T.J. Dorr, C.A. Burr, R. Werle, T.M. Shaver, and F. Mu�oz-Arriola. 2017. Performance analysis of electromagnetic soil water sensors in a loam soil. International Conference of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. July 16-19, 2017. Spokane, Washington.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Singh, J., T.H. Lo, D.R. Rudnick, T.J. Dorr, C.A. Burr, R. Werle, T.M. Shaver, and F. Mu�oz-Arriola. 2017. Performance analysis of electromagnetic soil water sensors in a loam soil. Poster presented by D.R. Rudnick at the European Conference on Precision Agriculture. July 16-20, 2017. Edinburgh, England.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Rudnick, D.R., T.H. Lo, J. Singh, T. Dorr, and C. Burr. 2017. Scheduling from full to deficit irrigation and its effect on irrigation water use efficiency. ASA, CSSA, & SSSA International Annual Meetings: Managing Global Resource for a Secure Future. October 22-25, 2017. Tampa, Florida.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Singaraju, S., V. Uddameri, P.H. Gowda, and R. Bailey. 2017. Improving regional groundwater flow models for the Texas portion of the Ogallala Aquifer. UCOWR/NIWR Annual Conference Water in a Changing Environment, July 13-15, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: V. Uddameri, S,. Singraju, E. Hernandez (2017) Groundwater Droughts  A tale of few Aquifers; Presented at the AWRA Annual Meeting; Portland, OR, Nov 5 - 6, 2017 (Conference had over 600 attendees, ~ 100 in attendance of the session where the presentation was made).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Vestal, M.K., Baumhardt, R.L., Guerrero, B.L., Almas, L. K. Analysis of Tillage and Cattle Grazing Effects on Profitability in a Dryland Wheat-Sorghum-Fallow Rotation: Should you own the cattle? Agricultural & Applied Economic Association, Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, July/August 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Andales, A.A. 2017. Tactical irrigation management using the WISE online tool. In: Proceedings of the 29th Annual Central Plains Irrigation Conference, Burlington, CO., February 21-22, 2017, pp 95-99. 24 producers, crop advisors, and researchers attended across 3 sessions. https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/irrigate/oow/p17/Andales_17.pdf
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Rudnick, D., S. Irmak, C. Ray, J. Schneekloth, M. Schipanski, I. Kisekka, A. Schlegel, J. Aguilar, D. Rogers, D. Mitchell, C. West, T. Marek, Q. Xue, W. Xu, and D. Porter. 2017. Deficit irrigation management of corn in the High Plains: A Review. Proceedings of the 29th Annual Central Plains Irrigation Conference, Burlington, CO., February 21-22, 2017. Mixed audience of 30 people. https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/irrigate/oow/p17/Rudnick17.pdf
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Schneekloth, J. "Central Plains Irrigation Shortcourse. Burlington, CO Producers. February 21-22. Presentations: Impact of Residue Management on Irrigated Corn Production Limited Irrigation Management. 120 producers
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Schipanski, M. J. Aguilar, A. Andales, J. Chavez, I. Kisekka, D. Rogers, D. Rudnick, J. Schneekloth, T. Shaver, J. Warren. Keynote presentation: The Ogallala water coordinated agricultural project: Optimizing water use for agriculture and rural communities. Central Plains Irrigation Association, Burlington, CO, February 22, 2017. Mixed audience of 120 people. https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/irrigate/oow/p17/Schipanski17.pdf
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Devlin, D. Ogallala Aquifer depletion: Sustaining the resource. 2017 UCOWR/NIWR Annual Conference Water in a Changing Environment June 12, 2017. 40 researchers
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Aguilar, Jonathan, D. Rogers, I. Kisekka, D. Porter, C. Hillyer, A. Andales, D. Rudnick. 2017. Free online irrigation management tools: From universities to producers. Universities Council on Water Resources / National Institutes of Water Resources Annual Conference. Ft. Collins, CO. June 13-15, 2017. 45 researchers
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Bailey, B. An Integrated Modeling Framework for Investigating Water Management Practices in the Ogallala Aquifer Region, UCOWR annual conference, Fort Collins, CO. June 13, 2017. 35 researchers.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Andales, A.A., Capurro, M.C., Smith, G.E.B., Gowda, P.H., Kisekka, I. Calibration of CERES-Maize against precision weighing lysimeter data under semi-arid conditions of eastern Colorado. Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR)/ National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR) Annual Conference, June 13, 2017, Fort Collins, CO (Oral Presentation). 35 researchers.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Golden, B. June 13, 2017 UCOWR meeting to present The Economics of Local Enhanced Management Areas in Southwest Kansas Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR)/ National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR) Annual Conference, Fort Collins, CO. June 13, 2017
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Owens, R., B. Guerrero, S. Amosson, and L. Almas. Impacts of the expanding dairy industry on water usage and business composition in the Southern Ogallala Aquifer Region. Selected Poster at the Universities Council on Water Resources Annual Conference. Ft. Collins, CO. June 13-15, 2017. 55 researchers.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Howell, N., E. Butler, and B. Guerrero. Water quality, quantity, and usefulness of playa systems in the Texas High Plains. Selected Paper at the Universities Council on Water Resources Annual Conference. Ft. Collins, CO. June 13-15, 2017. 55 researchers.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: West, C.P. 2017, June 13. Water use for beef production on pastures in West Texas. Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR)/ National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR) Annual Conference, Fort Collins, CO. June 13, 2017. 25 researchers.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Marek, T. Porter, D. Xue, Q. and Bell, J. The challenges of increased irrigated production in the future. Universities Council on Water Resources / National Institutes of Water Resources Annual Conference. Ft. Collins, CO. June 13-15, 2017. 35 researchers.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Porter, Dana, Kevin Wagner, Jonathan Aguilar, Danny Rogers, Thomas Marek, Gary Marek. 2017. Education and Technology Transfer in Agricultural Water Management: Effective Communication with Stakeholders. Universities Council on Water Resources / National Institutes of Water Resources Annual Conference. Ft. Collins, CO. June 13-15, 2017. 45 researchers
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mitchell-McCallister, D. "Effects of Irrigation Technology and Management on WUE and Crop Yield: A Meta-Analysis". Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR)/ National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR) Annual Conference, Fort Collins, CO. June 13, 2017. 35 researchers
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Zambreski, Z. and Lin, X. Assessment of historical and projected drought variability in the Great Plains. Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR)/ National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR) Annual Conference, Fort Collins, CO. June 13, 2017. 35 researchers.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Andales, A.A. and Ch�vez, J.L. Quantifying Crop Water Requirements using the Water Irrigation Scheduler for Efficient Application (WISE App) in northeast Colorado. 2017 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) Annual International Meeting, July 16-19, 2017, Spokane, WA. (Abstract and oral presentation). 12 researchers.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Kothari, K., Ale, S., Bordovsky, J., Thorp, K., Porter, D. and Munster, C. Evaluation of Irrigation Management Strategies and Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change on Grain Sorghum in the Texas High Plains. 2017 Annual International Meeting of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, Spokane, WA, July 16-20, 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Oker E. Tobias and I. Kisekka. 2017. Effect of Mobile Drip Irrigation on corn yield, biomass and water productivity. 2017. ASABE AIM Jul 16-19, 2017 Spokane, Washington USA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Haacker, E.M., Nozari, S. and Kendall, A.M. A New Boundary for the High Plains  Ogallala Aquifer Complex. AGU. New Orleans, December 12, 2017. https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm17/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/225408


Progress 03/15/16 to 03/14/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audience includes, farmers, members of district boards and other local governance groups focused on groundwater management, extension agents, seed and equipment dealers, local and state-level policy makers, private industry representatives, crop consultants, regional NGOs and state- and national-level groups focused on soil and water conservation in the Ogallala aquifer region, university and research faculty and students internal and external to the 8 universities funded by this project, and international groups and governments. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The hydrology and crops modeling Objective team held 1-day DSSAT and SWAT-MODFLOW training event on September 22, 2016, attended by ~20 project team members, including several post-docs and 1 PhD student. Several project team members provided one-on-one mentoring for county extension agents, extension specialists, research faculty, support staff and graduate students, industry researchers, and state/federal agency personnel. Project team members provided technical guidance and mentorship in designing and conducting applied research and interpreting data and research results. Participating postdoctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students received training and mentorship, including the opportunity to participate and present research plans at the annual team meeting. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Initial project results were disseminated to a large target audience within all 8 states of the Ogallala Aquifer region (CO, KS, NE, NM, OK, TX, SD, WY) at numerous field days attended by well over 1000 people in all, as well as at several state, regional and national level events, meeting and conferences attended by producers, researchers, extension agents, policy makers, students, seed and equipment dealers, crop consultants, members of groundwater management district boards, NGOS, private industry groups and/or representatives of international groups and governments . The project external website was linked to from 3 other websites (drylandag.org, OAP website, AWCC). Eight independent news stories and non-profit news stories and 4 research and extension ePubs or newsletters featured this project during the reporting period. Project visibility was gained through presentations and discussions to a wide variety of audiences. Some examples include: sessions on water/irrigation technologies at the Kansas Governor's Water and the Future of Kansas Conference in November 2016 attended by 600 people; project overview at the Irrigation Association/National Ground Water Association annual meeting in Las Vegas; presentation on the role of technology in addressing climate uncertainties to 200 attendees at a Brazil department of agriculture conference; and other presentations at producer events in Kansas, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, and Nebraska that had more than 1500 combined attendees. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? In Year 2, the integrated modeling framework will be finalized and specific management and policy scenarios will be defined with input from the advisory board and external stakeholders. Development of a survey instrument designed to identify social values and beliefs driving on-farm management decisions will be completed. Literature reviews and syntheses across a broad range of topics will be completed and submitted for publication. Efforts to gather, update and curate/preserve legacy materials (fact sheets, research reports, water-resource related newsletters) will continue. Collaborative research on irrigation management and soil health will be initiated across multiple hub sites. Internal communication platforms will be maintained and strengthened (e.g. internal website, Dropbox, recurring and special conference calls, in-person meetings) to provide up-to-date access to project documents, news, and personnel rosters and to support and encourage continued collaborative research by and cross objective. We will continue to engage the project Advisory Board in support of project related goals and activities, particularly on the outreach front to producers and other stakeholders. Networking and professional development opportunities will be created for project collaborators, students and postdocs. The project data management plan and infrastructure will be developed. We will increase our focus on outreach and communications through several activities and partnerships. We will partner with regional policymakers to develop and host a policy and research focused Ogallala Summit in 2017, contribute to Special Ogallala aquifer track for the Universities Council on Water Resources Annual Conference in Ft. Collins, CO in June 2017, and contribute to field days and winter irrigation conferences. The project's external web page will be launched; the site will include case studies and producer perspectives spanning the range of crop production and irrigation management challenges and strategies representative of the Ogallala aquifer region. The Agricultural Water Conservation Clearinghouse website (http://agwaterconservation.colostate.edu/), will be integrated with the main project website and updated to raise the visibility of Ogallala aquifer region-related resources and irrigation management tools. The potential to testbed a wide range of irrigation management technologies will be explored through engagement with private industry representatives. Through collaborations with USDA Climate hubs, three regional climate change listening session workshops will be held across the Ogallala Aquifer Region for a target audience of technical service providers and producers. Partnerships with other local, regional, state and federal-level groups focused on soil and water conservation in the Ogallala aquifer region will be explored and developed where possible to maximize the project's reach and impact.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? In Year 1, all objective teams made progress on key activities targeted to achieve our long-term outcomes of developing strategies to help agriculture production adapt to climate change, drought, and extreme weather, reducing water losses and improving irrigation water use efficiency, mitigating the impact of declining aquifer levels on rural community employment and economic activity. The project team developed novel modeling frameworks that will integrate groundwater, surface water, crop, and economic models to evaluate different management and policy scenarios. This framework will provide local groundwater management groups, producers, and other stakeholders with new data-driven tools to evaluate policy and management options and inform decision-making. In addition, cross-state and cross-institutionalization networks were developed that will ensure the success of our regional effort. Objective 1: Hydrologic and crop modeling systems team members identified the Ogallala Aquifer Region watersheds for integrated modeling efforts. MODFLOW models were parameterized and calibrated. A conceptual framework to link SWAT, MODFLOW and DSSAT models was developed. The compilation of a lysimeter database, phenology and growth data from field experiments, and quality assurance checks on historical climatic data were used to calibrate and validate the DSSAT model that will be applied to the Ogallala aquifer region study areas. Calibrated and validated crop models were applied to assess the impact of various limited irrigation management strategies (e.g., crop rotations, water allocation, planting dates) on crop yield, water productivity, and evapotranspiration (crop water use) for several crops. Other models besides DSSAT, such as AquaCrop, APSIM, and RZWQM, were calibrated and validated. The CERES-Maize model (from DSSAT) crop growth outputs were evaluated against 2 years of maize growth data from a precision weighing lysimeter. Objective 2: Numerous field trials involving limited irrigation or full irrigation were conducted for a wide range of crops, including corn, forage sorghum, grain sorghum, wheat, cotton, sunflower, safflower and cover crops. Experiments evaluating advanced irrigation technologies included row placement on sub-surface drip irrigation, comparison of mobile drip irrigation to sprinkler and bubblers, climatic (ET) based irrigation scheduling and soil sensor based irrigation scheduling under various crops and irrigation capacity systems, and the use of mobile drip irrigation as a water delivery platform for center pivot systems. Ground-based and remote-sensing UAS multispectral data was collected and pre-processed for soil water content, ground-based radiometry and micro-meteorological data for corn plots managed under three different irrigation strategies. Project team members worked to support, evaluate and/or develop the DIEM, KanSched, and WISE irrigation decision support tools. Corn evapotranspiration (ET) data from a 2015 limited irrigation experiment was used to evaluate the performance of the Water Irrigation Scheduler for Efficient application (WISE) in estimating seasonal corn ET under three levels of irrigation. As part of the integration to the aWhere, Inc. cloud computing platform Application Programming Interface (API), software was configured for two data servers for work with satellite and model precipitation data sets that will link to the irrigation decision support tools. Soil health and water quality-related experiments within dryland cropping and limited-irrigation cropping systems studied the impact of tillage and residue management on water use, grain yields, and infiltration, microbial activity, labile C, wind erosion susceptibility, and the effect of varying rates of both nitrogen and irrigation under corn. The team developed a list of cropping and irrigation management scenarios, spanning the range of production under dryland, partial/limited irrigation and full irrigation conditions, as part of the initial synthesis required to discuss and orient modeling activities of the project's hydrologic and economic teams. Objective 3: The socioeconomic objective team collected and/or updated data on crop enterprise budgets for irrigated and dryland crop acreage for the main crops grown within each state. The completion of an economic model of Republican River Basin in Colorado (funded on a previous project) led to the development and distribution of a producer survey and workshops where producers learned the results of the ongoing economic analysis, as part of an assessment of the impacts of such research on conservation attitudes. Field trips and site visits to Scott City, KS and Colby, KS were made to establish contacts with producers and members of groundwater management districts, laying the groundwork for future fieldwork to the Identify the social values and beliefs driving on-farm decisions about natural resource use and adaptive management. The economics group also engaged in an extensive initial review and comparison of various modeling approaches that could be used to evaluate the economic impacts of a wide range of hypothetical management practices and policy scenarios. Objective 4: Opportunities for collaborative research and outreach through partnerships external to the team were cultivated, including with local groundwater management groups, commodity groups, industry groups, regional Ogallala-focused organizations and representatives of state and national groups focused on improving water and soil conservation and helping farmers manage risk (e.g. NRCS Ogallala Aquifer Initiative, Climate Hubs, Grazing CAP, Ogallala Aquifer Project). Numerous extension talks were presented and extension bulletins were produced. Integration: Literature and data reviews or meta-analyses were initiated to gather information specific to the Ogallala aquifer region on range of topics, including: the effects of cover crops and conservation tillage systems on soil organic carbon and nutrient dynamics in the Semiarid Western US; production functions under limited (deficit) irrigation; social views of water use and water valuation; meta-analysis of KS corn variety trials comparing yield variability and climate with no-till and tilled management; and soil quality and health across the Ogallala Aquifer region. State engineers for all 8 states in Ogallala aquifer region responded to a 10-question survey on oversight of the Ogallala aquifer and irrigation and aquifer management within their states. During this first project year, as project team members got to know each other, several opportunities for collaboration both within an objective and/or by cross-objective were identified. Virtual and in-person meetings helped to define whole-project study areas, refine research terminology and identify effective communications and outreach opportunities and strategies. The modeling teams (hydrologic, climate, crop and economic) initiated a plan to dynamically couple local agricultural decision models for the Ogallala aquifer study areas with hydrologic models, so that the impact of policies and management strategies on regional aquifer levels can be assessed within a context of changing hydrologic conditions. Two project-wide in-person meetings were held on April 1, 2016 and December 8-9, 2016. More than 70 conference calls took place, involving the leadership team, objective teams, project subcommittees, the project evaluation team and/or the project advisory board. All 6 research hub sites were visited by project leadership to Identify opportunities for hub site collaborations across the Ogallala Aquifer region in the near term and over the life of the project. A hub site research database was initiated to identify gaps in research coverage and knowledge.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Araya, A., Kisekka, I., Gowda, P. H., & Prasad, P. V. (2017). Evaluation of water-limited cropping systems in a semi-arid climate using DSSAT-CSM. Agricultural Systems, 150, 86-98.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Araya, A., Kisekka, I., & Holman, J. (2016). Evaluating deficit irrigation management strategies for grain sorghum using AquaCrop. Irrigation Science, 34(6), 465-481.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Carr, T., Yang, H., & Ray, C. (2016). Temporal Variations of Water Productivity in Irrigated Corn: An Analysis of Factors Influencing Yield and Water Use across Central Nebraska. PloS one, 11(8), e0161944.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Lin, X., Pielke Sr, R. A., Mahmood, R., Fiebrich, C. A., & Aiken, R. (2016). Observational evidence of temperature trends at two levels in the surface layer. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 16(2), 827-841.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Zhang, T., & Lin, X. (2016). Assessing future drought impacts on yields based on historical irrigation reaction to drought for four major crops in Kansas. Science of the Total Environment, 550, 851-860.
  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Kisekka, I., and J. Aguilar. 2016. Deficit Irrigation as A Strategy to Cope with Declining Groundwater Supplies: Experiences from Kansas. Pages 89-108. In Emerging Issues in Groundwater Resources Part of the series Advances in Water Security pp 51-66. Edited by Ali Fares. Springer. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-32008-3_3.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Murley, C.B. 2016. Impact of driver accuracy on corn and grain sorghum yields in subsurface drip irrigation.�Thesis. Oklahoma State University. Dec.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Araya, A., I. Kisekka, V. Prasad, J. Holman, A. Foster, and R. Lollato. 2016. Assessing the response of wheat yield, biomass and water productivity to irrigation water allocation based on growth stages: a simulation study. Trans. ASABE.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Kisekka, I., T. Oker, G. Nguyen, J. Aguilar and Danny Rogers. 2016. Mobile Drip Irrigation Evaluation in Corn. Irrigation Science
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Kisekka, I., A. Schlegel, and L. Ma. 2016. Effect of Pre-plant Irrigation on Maize Yield, Evapotranspiration, and Soil Water Evaporation. Agricultural Water Management.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Araya, A., I. Kisekka, P.V. Vara Prasad and P. Gowda. 2016. Evaluating Optimum Limited Irrigation Management Strategies for Corn using Crop Simulation Models. Irrigation Science.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2017 Citation: Almas, L.K., B. L. Guerrero, D.G. Lust, H. Fatima, R. Tewari, and R. Taylor. 2017. Extending the Economic Life of the Ogallala Aquifer with Water Conservation Policies in the Texas Panhandle. Journal of Water and Resource Protection
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2017 Citation: M.K. Darapuneni, S.V. Angadi, S. Begna, L.M. Lauriault, M.R.Umesh, R. Kirksey, and M. Marsalis. 2016. Grain sorghum water use efficiency and yield are impacted by tillage, stubble height, and crop rotation. Crop, Forage, and Turfgrass Mgmt
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Kisekka, I., J. Holman, J. Waggoner, J. Aguilar, and R. Currie. 2016. Forage Sorghum and Corn Silage Response to Full and Deficit Irrigation. Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports: Vol. 2: Iss. 7. http://dx.doi.org/10.4148/2378-5977.1251.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Kisekka, I., F. R. Lamm and A. Schlegel. 2016. Sorghum Yield Response to Water Supply. Kisekka, I.; Lamm, F.; and Schlegel, A. (2016) "Sorghum Yield Response to Water Supply and Irrigation Management," Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports: Vol. 2: Iss. 7. http://dx.doi.org/10.4148/2378-5977.1252.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Warren, J., A. Stoecker, R. Jones, B. Lane, K. Ramaswamy, and T. Beedy. 2016.Crop Insurance Limitation to Adoption of Irrigated Grain Sorghum. Oklahoma State University, Stillwater. Dec.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Warren, J., A. Stoecker, R. Jones, K. Ramaswamy, and T. Beedy. 2016. Economic Viability of Grain Sorghum and Corn as a Function of Irrigation Capacity. Oklahoma State University, Stillwater. Dec.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Rudnick, D., Shaver, T., 2016. Soil Water Sensors for Irrigation Management (EC3002) http://extensionpubs.unl.edu/publication/9000018050880/soil-water-sensors-for-irrigation-management-ec3002/
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Schneekloth, J. P., & Andales, A. A. (2009). Seasonal water needs and opportunities for limited irrigation for Colorado crops. Colorado State University Extension.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Kisekka, I. and Lamm, F. 2016. Response of Drought Tolerant and Conventional Corn to Limited Irrigation. Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports: Vol. 2: Iss. 7. http://dx.doi.org/10.4148/2378-5977.1254.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Kisekka, I., G. Nguyen, J. Aguilar and Danny Rogers. 2016. Mobile Drip Irrigation Evaluation in Corn. Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports: Vol. 2: Iss. 7. http://dx.doi.org/10.4148/2378-5977.1253.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Ch�vez, J.L. 2016. Irrigation water management aided by UAV remote sensing. Presented at the 2nd World Irrigation Forum, Water Management in a Changing World: Role of irrigation for sustainable food production. Event SE-8 entitled Key and Smart Technologies for Irrigation and Drainage. Organized by the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID), Nov. 6-8, 2016, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: J. L. Ch�vez, J.Y. Zhang, Huihui Zhang, and W. Woldt. Issues Encountered Operating an UAS for Crop ET Estimations, 2016 USCID Fall meeting, Fort Collins, CO, October 11-14, 2016.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Andales A., Jos� L. Ch�vez, and Neil Hansen. Irrigation Scheduling Strategies for Limited Irrigation Conditions. Presented at the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), 2016 Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, Nov 6-9, 2016.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Schnarr, C., M. Schipanski, J. Tatarko. Cropping system effects on wind erosion potential. ASA/CSSA/SSSA meeting, Phoenix, AZ, November 7-9, 2016.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: Jones, A. S., 2017. Citation: Systems-level integration of climate and weather data to crop and economic models, 2017 AAAS Symposium, Boston, MA, February, 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: Jones, A. S., A. A. Andales, J. D. Niemann, M. Cammarere, and S. J. Fletcher, 2017. Enhancing predictive capabilities of phytobiome decision tools through predictive weather and fine-scale soil moisture, 8th Conference on Environment and Health, Seattle, WA, January 21-27, 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Jones, A. S., A. A. Andales, J. D. Niemann, M. Cammarere, S. J. Fletcher, and J. Corbett, 2016: Methods linking predictive weather and fine-scale soil moisture to crop and irrigation decision tools, AGU Fall Meeting, December 12-16, San Francisco, CA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Jones, A. S., 2016: Linking climate and weather scenarios to crop and economic models, Keystone Symposia, Phytobiomes: From microbes to Plant Ecosystems, November 8-12, Santa Fe, NM.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Porter, Dana. 2016. Irrigation Management for Cotton Production. Cotton Fiber Quality Conference, Texas A&M AgriLIfe Extension Service, Lubbock, TX, August 4, 2016.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Porter, Dana. 2016. Integrated agricultural water management programs in the Texas High Plains. Presented for RSAH2O, LLC. Lubbock, TX, September 8, 2016.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Porter, Dana. 2016. Ogallala Aquifer Program: Catalyst for Collaboration. Invited presentation, Annual Meeting of the Texas Section, American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. Lubbock, TX, October 6, 2016.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Andales, A.A. 2016. The Water Irrigation Scheduler for Efficient Application (WISE) online tool for Colorado (Conference presentation). US Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (USCID) Conference, 11-14 Nov 2016, Fort Collins, CO.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: West, C.P. 2016. Conserving irrigation water from the Ogallala; Water footprint of beef production on pastures. OECD Workshop on Virtual Water in Agricultural Products: Quantification, Limitations and Trade Policy. Sponsored by Nebraska Water Center. 14-16 Sep. Lincoln, Nebraska.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Baxter, L.L., and C.P. West. 2016. Comparison of productivity and efficiency of grass-only and grass-legume beef stocker grazing systems in the Southern High Plains. In Annual meetings abstracts [CD-ROM]. ASA, CSSA, and SSSA, Madison, WI.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Xiong, Y., C.P. West, and T. McLendon. 2016. Fractionating rainfall into vegetative interception and soil infiltration in perennial grassland. In Annual meetings abstracts [CD-ROM]. ASA, CSSA, and SSSA, Madison, WI.
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: OgallalaWater.org Optimizing water use to sustain food systems. August 1, 2016. Web. http://www.ogallalawater.org