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1. Butterfly biodiversity increases with prairie strips and conservation management in row crop agriculture

   https://doi.org/10.1111/icad.12675  

   Kemmerling, Lindsey R.; McCarthy, Annabelle C.; Brown, Cameron S.; Haddad, Nick M. (August 2023, Insect Conservation and Diversity)

   Abstract Butterfly abundances are declining globally, with meta‐analysis showing a rate of −2% per year. Agriculture contributes to butterfly decline through habitat loss and degradation. Prairie strips—strips of farmland actively restored to native perennial vegetation—are a conservation practice with the potential to mitigate biodiversity loss, but their impact on butterfly biodiversity is not known.Working within a 30‐year‐old experiment that varied land use intensity, from natural areas to croplands (maize–soy–wheat rotation), we introduced prairie strips to less intensely managed crop treatments. Treatments included conservation land, biologically based (organic) row crops with prairie strips, reduced input row crops with prairie strips, no‐till row crops and conventional row crops. We measured butterfly abundance and richness: (1) within prairie strips and (2) across the gradient of land use intensity at the plot level.Butterfly abundance was higher within prairie strips than in all other treatments. Across the land use intensity gradient at the plot level, the conservation land treatment had the highest abundance, treatments with prairie strips had intermediate levels and no‐till and conventional treatments had the lowest abundances. Also across entire plots, butterfly richness increased as land use intensity decreased. Treatments with prairie strips, which also had reduced land use intensity, had distinct butterfly communities as they harboured several butterfly species that were not found in other row crop treatments.In addition to the known effects of prairie strips on ecosystem services including erosion control and increased water quality, prairie strips can increase biodiversity in multifunctional landscapes. 

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2. Optimizing corn agrivoltaic farming through farm-scale experimentation and modeling

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crsus.2024.100148  

   Gupta, Varsha; Gruss, Shelby M; Cammarano, Davide; Brouder, Sylvie M; Bermel, Peter A; Tuinstra, Mitchel R; Gitau, Margaret W; Agrawal, Rakesh (July 2024, Cell Reports Sustainability)

   Agrivoltaic systems, which achieve sustainable food and energy co-production (SFE) by installing photovoltaics (PVs) on farmland, offer a climate-resilient solution for meeting ”full Earth” needs while adhering to land limitations. However, limited research on major row crops, such as corn (Zea Mays), constrains the widespread adoption of agrivoltaics. To bridge this research gap, a two-step process was executed. First, extensive corn growth data was collected from neighboring regions, specifically segregating ”with-PV” (shaded) and ”without-PV” (unshaded) areas under real farming conditions. Using data from unshaded areas, the APSIM plant model was calibrated. Subsequently, an analytical shadow model was used to compute the spatiotemporal shadow distribution (SSD) for each row of corn between PV panels. This SSD data helped validate the APSIM model using the experimental corn yield data from shaded areas. 

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3. Increased Dependence on Irrigated Crop Production Across the CONUS (1945–2015)

   https://doi.org/10.3390/w11071458  

   Smidt, Samuel J.; Kendall, Anthony D.; Hyndman, David W. (July 2019, Water)

   Efficient irrigation technologies, which seem to promise reduced production costs and water consumption in heavily irrigated areas, may instead be driving increased irrigation use in areas that were not traditionally irrigated. As a result, the total dependence on supplemental irrigation for crop production and revenue is steadily increasing across the contiguous United States. Quantifying this dependence has been hampered by a lack of comprehensive irrigated and dryland yield and harvested area data outside of major irrigated regions, despite the importance and long history of irrigation applications in agriculture. This study used a linear regression model to disaggregate lumped agricultural statistics and estimate average irrigated and dryland yields at the state level for five major row crops: corn, cotton, hay, soybeans, and wheat. For 1945–2015, we quantified crop production, irrigation enhancement revenue, and irrigated and dryland areas in both intensively irrigated and marginally-dependent states, where both irrigated and dryland farming practices are implemented. In 2015, we found that irrigating just the five commodity crops enhanced revenue by ~$7 billion across all states with irrigation. In states with both irrigated and dryland practices, 23% of total produced area relied on irrigation, resulting in 7% more production than from dryland practices. There was a clear response to increasing biofuel demand, with the addition of more than 3.6 million ha of irrigated corn and soybeans in the last decade in marginally-dependent states. Since 1945, we estimate that yield enhancement due to irrigation has resulted in over $465 billion in increased revenue across the contiguous United States (CONUS). Example applications of this dataset include estimating historical water use, evaluating the effects of environmental policies, developing new resource management strategies, economic risk analyses, and developing tools for farmer decision making. 

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4. Effects of Deficit Irrigation in Pepper Plants (Capsicum annuum) Grown Under Greenhouse Conditions

   Morgan, Eva I; Zamora, Erik; Nelson, Shad D; Donato-Molina, Consuelo; Anoruo, Ambrose (January 2024, World Journal of Agriculture and Soil Science)

   Water is a vital component for agricultural productivity; however, freshwater supplies are limited and are dwindling worldwide. Water for agriculture is an extreme issue for the southern region of Texas, where water supplies from reservoirs are used for municipal, industrial, and agricultural purposes. Due to intensive and prolonged intermittent droughts in south Texas, freshwater sources can deplete rapidly leaving growers on water restrictions. One potential solution of reducing the amount of water for crops is by applying less water than recommended crop evapotranspiration requires. Deficit irrigation (DI) is the practice of applying lower amounts of water than general crop requirements to increase water use efficiency for economic benefit. Deficit irrigation practice has been shown to be beneficial to some fruit and vegetable crops, but to a lesser extent in south Texas for mild heat pepper plant production. The purpose of this project was to analyze how watering jalapeño and serrano pepper plants at different levels of DI would impact plant growth and fruit yield in a greenhouse study. Deficit irrigation treatments were performed by irrigating pots at increasing the number of days between irrigation events (water application: 2, 4, 8, and 12 days) to create increasing water stress levels to plants. Plant growth and biomass data was collected to determine the impact of increasing deficit irrigation on plant shoot productivity. In both varieties, plant biomass steadily decreased as water application decreased. Serrano peppers grown at both 4d and 2d between water application events produced identical yields, however, increased water stress immediately impacted jalapeño peppers with lower yield. The encouraging results from serrano peppers suggest a potential economic benefit for deficit irrigation water use practices applied to this pepper variety. 

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5. Effects of Deficit Irrigation in Pepper Plants (Capsicum annuum) Grown Under Greenhouse Conditions

   Morgan, Eva I; Zamora, Erik; Nelson, Shad D; Donato-Molina, M_Consuelo; Anoruo, Ambrose (January 2024, World Journal of Agriculture and Soil Science)

   Water is a vital component for agricultural productivity; however, freshwater supplies are limited and are dwindling worldwide. Water for agriculture is an extreme issue for the southern region of Texas, where water supplies from reservoirs are used for municipal, industrial, and agricultural purposes. Due to intensive and prolonged intermittent droughts in south Texas, freshwater sources can deplete rapidly leaving growers on water restrictions. One potential solution of reducing the amount of water for crops is by applying less water than recommended crop evapotranspiration requires. Deficit irrigation (DI) is the practice of applying lower amounts of water than general crop requirements to increase water use efficiency for economic benefit. Deficit irrigation practice has been shown to be beneficial to some fruit and vegetable crops, but to a lesser extent in south Texas for mild heat pepper plant production. The purpose of this project was to analyze how watering jalapeño and serrano pepper plants at different levels of DI would impact plant growth and fruit yield in a greenhouse study. Deficit irrigation treatments were performed by irrigating pots at increasing the number of days between irrigation events (water application: 2, 4, 8, and 12 days) to create increasing water stress levels to plants. Plant growth and biomass data was collected to determine the impact of increasing deficit irrigation on plant shoot productivity. In both varieties, plant biomass steadily decreased as water application decreased. Serrano peppers grown at both 4d and 2d between water application events produced identical yields, however, increased water stress immediately impacted jalapeño peppers with lower yield. The encouraging results from serrano peppers suggest a potential economic benefit for deficit irrigation water use practices applied to this pepper variety. 

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