Crop residues are potential biofuel feedstocks, but residue removal may reduce soil carbon (C). The inclusion of a cover crop in a corn bioenergy system could provide additional biomass, mitigating the negative effects of residue removal by adding to stable soil C pools. In a no-till continuous corn bioenergy system in the northern US Corn Belt, we used CO2 pulse labeling to trace plant C from ...

Intensive agriculture and increased N-fertilizer use have contributed to elevated emissions of the greenhouse gases, CO2, CH4, and N2O. In this study, the exchange of the greenhouse gases, CO2, N2O, and CH4, between a Quincy fine sand (mixed, mesic Xeric Torripsamments) soil and atmosphere was measured in a sweet corn (Zea mays L.) sweet corn potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) rotation during the 20...

Machinery for sowing wheat directly into rice residues has become more common in the rice-wheat systems of the north-west Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia, with increasing numbers of farmers now potentially able to access the benefits of residue retention. However, surface residue retention affects soil water and temperature dynamics, thus the optimum sowing date and irrigation management for...

The Heihe River is the second largest river in arid areas of China, and the irrigation water of oasis agriculture in its middle reaches accounts for almost 80% of the water resources in the whole watershed. Corn is the most important crop in the middle reaches of the Heihe River, and its water consumption is about 50% of the total agriculture water consumption of the middle reaches. Therefore, ...

abstract using mathematical models for irrigation management have great impacts to increase irrigation efficiency and product amount, in fields. in this study, simulation results by swap model for moisture, compared with soil profiles moisture values, measured in the field. moisture data, measured at three wheat farms in the neyshabur plain, were used to predict moisture. results show good agre...

The use of treated wastewater for irrigation of crops could result in high nitrate-nitrogen (NO(3)-N) concentrations in the vadose zone and ground water. The goal of this 2-yr field-monitoring study in the deep silty clay loam soils south of Dodge City, Kansas, was to assess how and under what circumstances N from the secondary-treated, wastewater-irrigated corn reached the deep (20-45 m) water...

Different techniques for estimating seasonal water use from soil profile water depletion frequently do not account for flux below the root zone. Shallow water table contribution to supply crop water use may be important in arid and semi-arid regions. Development of predictive root uptake models, under influence of shallow water table makes it possible for planners to incorporate interaction bet...

Fusarium wilt of cotton, caused by F. oxysporum f sp.vasinfectum, was first recognized in Australia in 1993. The pathogen can be seed borne and it can also be dispersed in soil and crop residues attached to vehicles and machinery and carried in irrigation and flood water. Infection is favored by cool, wet spring conditions and shallow development of roots. The rapid increase in the distribution...