Article
Agronomy
Kaylin P. Fink, Patricio Grassini, Alexandre Rocateli, Leonardo M. Bastos, Jude Kastens, Luke P. Ryan, Xiaomao Lin, Andres Patrignani, Romulo P. Lollato
Summary: This study provides a systematic analysis of attainable alfalfa water productivity and identifies key agronomic practices associated with alfalfa yield gap.
FIELD CROPS RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Grace L. Miner, Jorge A. Delgado, James A. Ippolito, Jerry J. Johnson, Danica L. Kluth, Catherine E. Stewart
Summary: Wheat is a major source of calorie consumption for the global population, but it is low in zinc and iron, which has negative impacts on human health. Despite increasing yield, the concentrations of zinc and iron in wheat grains have decreased. Nitrogen fertilizer can improve the micronutrient content in grains to some extent, but the availability of zinc in the soil is limited in the US Central Great Plains region. Therefore, alternative strategies are needed to increase the zinc content in wheat grains in this region.
FIELD CROPS RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Ignacio Massigoge, Ana Carcedo, Jane Lingenfelser, Trevor Hefley, P. V. Vara Prasad, Dan Berning, Sara Lira, Carlos D. Messina, Charles W. Rice, Ignacio Ciampitti
Summary: Region-specific guidelines for maize management are essential in the US Great Plains. This study aimed to define maize yield environments, explore optimal planting date and hybrid maturity combinations, and identify different windows for maximizing yields. Historical weather data from 70 sites were used to analyze maize field dataset and simulate yields using the APSIM model. Results showed that long-maturing hybrids achieved greater yields, while late planting increased stability in central environments. Short-season hybrid maturities allowed for anticipation of physiological maturity date without yield penalties. The study suggests adopting region-specific guidelines to optimize yield and intensify maize-based farming systems.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF AGRONOMY
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Yizhou Zhuang, Amir Erfanian, Rong Fu
Summary: The study reveals a significant correlation between low-level moisture conditions in the U.S. Southwest in spring and rainfall variability over the Great Plains in summer. The influence of Southwest dryness on zonal moisture advection to the Great Plains plays a crucial role in initiating warm season drought. This remote land surface feedback due to Southwest dryness could potentially improve the predictability of summer precipitation and drought onsets over the Great Plains.
JOURNAL OF HYDROMETEOROLOGY
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Tarek Kandakji, Thomas E. Gill, Jeffrey A. Lee
Summary: This study examines the impacts of drought and land use/land cover on aeolian dust emission, finding a significant association between drought level, land cover type, and the number of dust point sources. The results provide important insights for future research on the drought-LULC-dust linkage.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Agronomy
Brent R. Jaenisch, Lucas B. Munaro, Leonardo M. Bastos, Marden Moraes, Xiaomao Lin, Romulo P. Lollato
Summary: This study used Kansas, the largest wheat producing state in the U.S., as an initial assessment to quantify yield gaps and identify key management factors. The research discovered that management practices such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur fertilizer, as well as foliar fungicide, played significant roles in grain yield, with interactions varying across different seasons and regions.
FIELD CROPS RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Benjamin Cook, A. Park Williams, Kate Marvel
Summary: This study investigates the response of early summer droughts over the Central Plains to a moderate warming scenario using tree-ring based reconstructions and six model ensembles. The findings indicate that even in the absence of robust precipitation declines, there is a potential increase in the severity and risk of early summer droughts over the Central Plains due to moderate warming. Additionally, the impact of major atmospheric ridging events on drought severity is projected to become stronger.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Gerald A. Meehl, Haiyan Teng, Nan Rosenbloom, Aixue Hu, Claudia Tebaldi, Guy Walton
Summary: Unprecedented heat extremes occurred in the 1930s in areas far from the US, and a climate model experiment reveals a new mechanism involving a warm season atmospheric pattern that spread heat extremes across the Northern Hemisphere. Only in the 21st century have populations in these regions experienced similar heat extremes, indicating human influence on regional temperature and the possibility of future droughts affecting heat extremes on a hemispheric scale.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Pradeep Wagle, Vijaya G. Kakani, Prasanna H. Gowda, Xiangming Xiao, Brian K. Northup, James P. S. Neel, Patrick J. Starks, Jean L. Steiner, Stacey A. Gunter
Summary: This study compared the dynamics of vegetation phenology, CO2 fluxes, and evapotranspiration in six differently managed native tallgrass prairie pastures during the dormant seasons. The results showed that weather conditions and management practices influenced the flux discrepancies, and prescribed spring burns and rainfall had interactive effects on vegetation phenology. The enhanced vegetation index (EVI) better tracked the phenology of tallgrass prairie compared to the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI).
Article
Plant Sciences
Ana J. P. Carcedo, Laura Mayor, Paula Demarco, Geoffrey P. Morris, Jane Lingenfelser, Carlos D. Messina, Ignacio A. Ciampitti
Summary: This study characterized the spatial and temporal variation of the target population of environments (TPE) for sorghum in the United States using the APSIM-sorghum model. The results showed that as the intensity of environmental stress increased, there was a clear reduction in grain yield. The study also identified different water and heat stress patterns and their impact on sorghum yield, which can be used in breeding programs to improve genetic gains and facilitate collaboration between breeders, agronomists, and farmers.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Soil Science
Monte Vandeveer, Johnathon D. Holman, Alan Schlegel, Dan O'Brien, Augustine K. Obour, Lucas Haag, Yared Assefa
Summary: Tillage systems have evolved from conventional tillage (CT) to conservation tillage (reduced tillage and no-tillage) to occasional tillage (OT) in response to new findings and obstacles. However, there is limited economic analysis on these tillage systems. This study quantified the economic advantages of various tillage systems (CT, RT, NT, and OT) in a wheat-sorghum-fallow rotation in the central Great Plains. The results showed that NT had higher sorghum yields and returns compared to CT and RT, and a one-time OT in a long-term NT system did not significantly affect yields and returns in the first 5 years.
SOIL & TILLAGE RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Environmental Studies
Saroj Adhikari, Omkar Joshi, Michael Sorice, Sam Fuhlendorf
Summary: Patch-burn grazing is a new approach to maintaining biodiversity in the Great Plains of the United States, but many ranchers are unaware of it and have not adopted it. A survey conducted in 2021 analyzed the factors affecting the awareness and adoption of patch-burn grazing. The study found that factors like repeated wildfires, nature conservancy, and university/county extension positively influenced awareness and adoption, while age and livestock membership had negative impacts.
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Yongjun Zhang, Prasanna Gowda, David Brown, Charles Rice, Zachary Zambreski, Seth Kutikoff, Xiaomao Lin
Summary: The study examined the long-term trends of frost indicators in the U.S. Southern Great Plains, revealing earlier dates of last spring frost, later dates of first fall frost, and longer frost-free seasons from 1950 to 2017. The choice of time period in climatic time series was crucial in determining these trends, with correlations found between the trends and the spring Arctic Oscillation and fall Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Agronomy
Vipan Kumar, Rui Liu, Misha R. Manuchehri, Eric P. Westra, Todd A. Gaines, Chad W. Shelton
Summary: The research found that feral rye populations were highly sensitive to quizalofop-p-ethyl, with applications of >=77 g a.i. ha(-1) in fall or spring providing effective control. The treatment with quizalofop-p-ethyl can reduce winter wheat yield loss due to reduced feral rye competition, protecting yields by 17-27% compared to untreated weedy check.
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Dennis S. Ojima
Summary: The Northern Great Plains region is crucial for providing water and land resources, but faces challenges due to changing climate and socioeconomic conditions. Rapid onset of drought and other extreme events pose significant challenges for resource managers and operators. Efforts are needed to enhance resilience and adaptive management options in response to these impacts.
CURRENT OPINION IN ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
(2021)
Article
Water Resources
Nels R. Bjarke, Ben Livneh, Sarah C. Elmendorf, Noah P. Molotch, Eve-Lyn S. Hinckley, Nancy C. Emery, Pieter T. J. Johnson, Jennifer F. Morse, Katherine N. Suding
Summary: The Niwot Ridge and Green Lakes Valley long-term ecological research site in the north-central Colorado Rocky Mountains has been collecting environmental observations since 1952, providing a wealth of data for hydrologic investigations. The research at NWT LTER aims to understand ecological responses to climate, nutrients, and water availability in high-mountain environments, with a focus on hydrologic connectivity and snow-albedo alteration experiments. The combination of observational and experimental datasets at NWT LTER lays a strong foundation for studying and predicting changes in catchment and local-scale processes.
HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
A. Park Williams, Ben Livneh, Karen A. McKinnon, Winslow D. Hansen, Justin S. Mankin, Benjamin Cook, Jason E. Smerdon, Arianna M. Varuolo-Clarke, Nels R. Bjarke, Caroline S. Juang, Dennis P. Lettenmaier
Summary: Streamflow often increases after fire, and this effect has unclear persistence and importance to regional water resources. This study examines 72 forested basins in the western United States (WUS) and finds that multibasin mean streamflow significantly increases in the 6 water years after a fire. The streamflow response is proportional to the fire extent and is significant in all four seasons. Furthermore, historical fire-climate relationships and climate model projections suggest that wildfires will become more frequent in the coming decades, leading to increased regional streamflow.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Cameron Wobus, Eric Small, Jared C. Carbone, Parthkumar Modi, Hannah Kamen, William Szafranski, Ben Livneh
Summary: Water allocation is governed by complex water laws in many parts of the world, including the western United States. However, these laws may not maximize economic value across the entire economy. A study using a simplified MATLAB model found that the total economic value generated from water-dependent users depends primarily on the total water available in the system. Economic value is not necessarily maximized when all water is allocated to the user with the highest willingness to pay (WTP). Instead, it depends on the amount of water available, the relative WTP between users, and the return flows generated from each sector's water use.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Fangfang Yao, Ben Livneh, Balaji Rajagopalan, Jida Wang, Jean-Francois Cretaux, Yoshihide Wada, Muriel Berge-Nguyen
Summary: This study finds that over the past few decades, approximately 53% of the largest 1,972 global lakes have experienced significant declines in water volume. The volume loss in natural lakes is primarily attributed to climate warming, increasing evaporative demand, and human water consumption, while sedimentation dominates storage losses in reservoirs. It is estimated that around one-quarter of the world's population resides in a basin of a drying lake, emphasizing the importance of incorporating climate change and sedimentation impacts into sustainable water resources management.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Kaitlyn Bishay, Nels R. R. Bjarke, Parthkumar Modi, Justin M. M. Pflug, Ben Livneh
Summary: Understanding the relationship between remotely sensed snow disappearance and seasonal water supply is important for supplementing limited ground based measurements in a changing climate. A study investigated this relationship for 15 snow dominated basins across the western U.S. using satellite-derived Day of Snow Disappearance (DSD) and April-July total streamflow volume. The study found a significant relationship between DSD and water supply, with satellite-based models showing better prediction skill than in-situ-based models.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Katherine E. Hale, Keith S. Jennings, Keith N. Musselman, Ben Livneh, Noah P. Molotch
Summary: Mountain snowpacks serve as natural water storage, but the Snow Storage Index (SSI) has shown a decrease in western North America since 1950 due to earlier snowmelt, spring rains, and reduced winter precipitation. The SSI measures the delay in water input from the timing of a melting snowpack, offering insights into hydrologic sensitivity to climate change and its implications for water resources and ecosystems.
COMMUNICATIONS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Fangfang Yao, J. Toby Minear, Balaji Rajagopalan, Chao Wang, Kehan Yang, Ben Livneh
Summary: In nearly all reservoirs, storage capacity is lost due to sediment accumulation, and the sedimentation rates are poorly understood. In this study, a novel approach is proposed to estimate reservoir sedimentation rates and storage capacity losses using satellite images and water level data. The approach is validated on eight reservoirs in the United States and shows good accuracy in estimating the bathymetry and sedimentation rates.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
K. E. Hale, K. N. Musselman, A. J. Newman, B. Livneh, N. P. Molotch
Summary: In the mountainous western United States, a warming climate is causing a decrease in the fraction of precipitation falling as snow and a shift in the timing of snowmelt, leading to uncertain impacts on the distribution of water between evapotranspiration and streamflow. By using a Snow Storage Index (SSI) and a Budyko-based framework, this study found that greater snow water storage was associated with greater hydrologic partitioning to streamflow in several mountainous areas. The retention and release of stored snow water during the summer months plays a significant role in water distribution. If SSI decreases with future warming, it will have substantial implications for ecosystems and water supplies in the western U.S.
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Nels Bjarke, Joseph Barsugli, Ben Livneh
Summary: Assessing changes in future aridity requires an understanding of variations in the atmospheric demand for water. Here we describe the development and validation of a dataset of global monthly estimates of ET0, ETP, and vapor pressure deficit from CMIP6 projections. Overall, evaporative demand is projected to increase across all emissions scenarios, with the largest increases over polar regions and a larger contribution from advection in regions with higher baseline ET0.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Justin M. Pflug, Yiwen Fang, Steven A. Margulis, Ben Livneh
Summary: Thresholds can be useful for interpreting environmental data, but they may vary when applied to different datasets or time periods. This study examines the impact of different spatial discretizations of snow on estimates of wolverine denning opportunities. The results show that snow thresholds are important but may not capture the full variability in snow-adapted wildlife denning opportunities.
HYDROLOGY AND EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Elsa S. Culler, Ben Livneh, Balaji Rajagopalan, Kristy F. Tiampo
Summary: Wildfires change hydrologic and geomorphic response, leading to additional hazards and challenges. This study evaluates the trigger characteristics of post-wildfire mass movement by comparing precipitation before events in burned and unburned locations. The results show that mass movements in burned sites are preceded by less precipitation, supporting the hypothesis that fire increases rainfall-driven mass movement hazards. Additionally, there are differences in the seasonality of mass movements between burned and unburned locations.
NATURAL HAZARDS AND EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Melanie Holland, Ben Livneh, Evan Thomas
Summary: This study develops a groundwater abstraction forecast model using in situ groundwater abstraction data, hydrologic, and climatic data. Artificial neural network models outperform other model algorithms and can reliably predict groundwater abstraction. The model performs best on a monthly time step and forecasts are reliable within a two-month lead time. Regional heterogeneity may introduce error into the model.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Aaron Heldmyer, Ben Livneh, James McCreight, Laura Read, Joseph Kasprzyk, Toby Minear
Summary: Accurate representation of channel properties is crucial for forecasting in hydrologic models. However, there is considerable uncertainty in the parameterization of channel geometry and hydraulic roughness in the NOAA National Water Model due to data scarcity. This study aims to improve channel representativeness by updating channel geometry and roughness parameters using a large, previously unpublished hydraulic geometry dataset.
HYDROLOGY AND EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Melanie Holland, Chris Thomas, Ben Livneh, Stephanie Tatge, Alex Johnson, Evan Thomas
Summary: Megadrought in the western United States is threatening water security, and groundwater regulations are crucial for preserving groundwater resources. However, there are limited technologies available for monitoring and regulating groundwater abstraction. In this study, satellite-connected electrical current sensors were deployed on agricultural groundwater pumps in California, and a regression model was developed to predict groundwater abstraction and level. The data was integrated with a blockchain-based groundwater credit trading platform to demonstrate its potential use for compliance with groundwater regulations.
Review
Chemistry, Analytical
Carli P. Brucker, Ben Livneh, J. Toby Minear, Fernando L. Rosario-Ortiz
Summary: This review addresses the knowledge gap in simulating combustion and heating characteristics of natural wildfires and their impact on water quality and quantity. Simulation experiments provide advantages of overcoming logistical challenges, reducing spatial variability, and attributing water responses to specific drivers. However, limitations include observing only local-scale processes, potential misrepresentation of natural settings, and challenges in upscaling results.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE-PROCESSES & IMPACTS
(2022)
