Abstract
Water shortages in arid regions present challenges in administering water and requires robust water accounting. In southeast Idaho, the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer (ESPA) supports an important agricultural sector. Due to connectivity between surface and groundwater in the ESPA, quantifying aquifer recharge is also important. Historically, leaching from excess surface irrigation supported incidental recharge to the ESPA, but more efficient irrigation techniques reduced incidental recharge. This paper outlines a deep infiltration (DI) model developed to evaluate infiltration losses from different irrigation practices and soil types. Twelve scenarios were created to simulate an alfalfa growing season under varying climatic and soil conditions. Under some scenarios, modeled infiltration losses increased by 10%–20% coincident with increased application efficiency. The concept of consumptive use efficiency (CUE) is introduced to quantify the proportion of irrigation beneficially used by crops. The model results show that CUE decreased with increasing application efficiency and suggest CUE could be improved 8%–10% for well-drained loamy soils; clay loam soils showed little opportunity for improvement. The results indicate that more efficient irrigation application techniques may increase DI loss if irrigation schedules do not explicitly include soil water storage for the entire rooting zone. These results indicate that in conditions where losses from DI can be reduced, improving water use efficiency depends on precision irrigation scheduling linked to infiltration rates. This model provides a practical method by which infiltration losses from irrigated lands can be estimated. Considering site-specific infiltration would facilitate and prioritize investments meant to improve water use efficiency.
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Claims 6
Claim · model-written summary
In some simulated alfalfa irrigation scenarios, modeled infiltration losses increased by 10%-20% coincident with increased application efficiency.
- Taxon
- alfalfa
Medicago sativat0 - Outcome
- infiltration lossese0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Value
- 10%–20%e0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“modeled infiltration losses increased by 10%–20% coincident with increased application efficiency”
t0“Center-Pivot Irrigated Alfalfa”
Claim · model-written summary
Modeled consumptive use efficiency (CUE) decreased with increasing application efficiency.
- Taxon
- alfalfaMedicago sativat0
- Treatment
- increasing application efficiencye0
- Outcome
- CUEe0
- Direction
- decreasede0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“CUE decreased with increasing application efficiency”
t0“Center-Pivot Irrigated Alfalfa”
Claim · model-written summary
CUE could be improved by 8%-10% for well-drained loamy soils.
- Taxon
- alfalfaMedicago sativat0
- Outcome
- CUEe0
- Direction
- improvede0
- Value
- 8%–10%e0
- Setting
- well-drained loamy soilse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“suggest CUE could be improved 8%–10% for well-drained loamy soils”
t0“Center-Pivot Irrigated Alfalfa”
Claim · model-written summary
Clay loam soils showed little opportunity for improvement of CUE.
- Taxon
- alfalfaMedicago sativat0
- Outcome
- little opportunity for improvemente0
- Setting
- clay loam soilse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“clay loam soils showed little opportunity for improvement”
t0“Center-Pivot Irrigated Alfalfa”
Claim · model-written summary
More efficient irrigation application techniques may increase deep infiltration loss if irrigation schedules do not explicitly include soil water storage for the entire rooting zone.
- Taxon
- alfalfaMedicago sativat0
- Treatment
- more efficient irrigation application techniquese0
- Outcome
- DI losse0
- Direction
- increasee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“more efficient irrigation application techniques may increase DI loss if irrigation schedules do not explicitly include soil water storage for the entire rooting zone”
t0“Center-Pivot Irrigated Alfalfa”
Claim · model-written summary
Improving water use efficiency, where deep infiltration losses can be reduced, depends on precision irrigation scheduling linked to infiltration rates.
- Taxon
- alfalfaMedicago sativat0
- Outcome
- water use efficiencye0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“improving water use efficiency depends on precision irrigation scheduling linked to infiltration rates”
t0“Center-Pivot Irrigated Alfalfa”