IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i3p1153-d317009.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impacts of Climate Change and Different Crop Rotation Scenarios on Groundwater Nitrate Concentrations in a Sandy Aquifer

Author

Listed:
  • Shoaib Saleem

    (School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada)

  • Jana Levison

    (School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada)

  • Beth Parker

    (School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada)

  • Ralph Martin

    (Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada)

  • Elisha Persaud

    (School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada)

Abstract

Nitrate in groundwater is a major concern in agricultural sub-watersheds. This study assessed the impacts of future climate and agricultural land use changes on groundwater nitrate concentrations in an agricultural sub-watershed (Norfolk site) in southern Ontario, Canada. A fully integrated hydrologic model (HydroGeoSphere) was used in combination with the root zone water quality model (RZWQM2) (shallow zone) to develop water flow and nitrate transport models. Three climate change models and three crop rotations (corn-soybean rotation, continuous corn, corn-soybean-winter wheat-red clover rotation) were used to evaluate the potential impact on groundwater quality (nine predictive scenarios). The selected climate change scenarios yielded less water availability in the future period than in the reference period (past conditions). The simulated nitrate nitrogen (Nitrate-N) concentrations were lower during the future period than the reference period. The continuous corn land use scenario produced higher Nitrate-N concentrations compared to the base case (corn-soybean rotation). However, the best management practices (BMP) scenario (corn-soybean-winter wheat-red clover rotation) produced significantly lower groundwater nitrate concentrations. BMPs, such as the one examined herein, should be adopted to reduce potential negative impacts of future climate change on groundwater quality, especially in vulnerable settings. These findings are important for water and land managers, to mitigate future impacts of nutrient transport on groundwater quality under a changing climate.

Suggested Citation

  • Shoaib Saleem & Jana Levison & Beth Parker & Ralph Martin & Elisha Persaud, 2020. "Impacts of Climate Change and Different Crop Rotation Scenarios on Groundwater Nitrate Concentrations in a Sandy Aquifer," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-25, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:3:p:1153-:d:317009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/3/1153/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/3/1153/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Giller, K.E. & Tittonell, P. & Rufino, M.C. & van Wijk, M.T. & Zingore, S. & Mapfumo, P. & Adjei-Nsiah, S. & Herrero, M. & Chikowo, R. & Corbeels, M. & Rowe, E.C. & Baijukya, F. & Mwijage, A. & Smith,, 2011. "Communicating complexity: Integrated assessment of trade-offs concerning soil fertility management within African farming systems to support innovation and development," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 191-203, February.
    2. Danvi, Alexandre & Giertz, Simone & Zwart, Sander J. & Diekkrüger, Bernd, 2017. "Comparing water quantity and quality in three inland valley watersheds with different levels of agricultural development in central Benin," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 257-270.
    3. David S. Powlson & Clare M. Stirling & M. L. Jat & Bruno G. Gerard & Cheryl A. Palm & Pedro A. Sanchez & Kenneth G. Cassman, 2014. "Limited potential of no-till agriculture for climate change mitigation," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(8), pages 678-683, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jian Sha & Xue Li & Jingjing Yang, 2021. "Estimation of Watershed Hydrochemical Responses to Future Climate Changes Based on CMIP6 Scenarios in the Tianhe River (China)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-19, September.
    2. You, Yang & Wang, Yakun & Fan, Xiaodong & Dai, Qin & Yang, Guang & Wang, Wene & Chen, Dianyu & Hu, Xiaotao, 2024. "Progress in joint application of crop models and hydrological models," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Valbuena, Diego & Tui, Sabine Homann-Kee & Erenstein, Olaf & Teufel, Nils & Duncan, Alan & Abdoulaye, Tahirou & Swain, Braja & Mekonnen, Kindu & Germaine, Ibro & Gérard, Bruno, 2015. "Identifying determinants, pressures and trade-offs of crop residue use in mixed smallholder farms in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 107-118.
    2. OKORIE, Benedict Odinaka & NIRAJ, Yadav, 2022. "Effects Of Different Tillage Practices On Soil Fertility Properties: A Review," International Journal of Agriculture and Environmental Research, Malwa International Journals Publication, vol. 8(1), February.
    3. Tiziano Gomiero, 2016. "Soil Degradation, Land Scarcity and Food Security: Reviewing a Complex Challenge," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-41, March.
    4. Veltman, Karin & Rotz, C. Alan & Chase, Larry & Cooper, Joyce & Ingraham, Pete & Izaurralde, R. César & Jones, Curtis D. & Gaillard, Richard & Larson, Rebecca A. & Ruark, Matt & Salas, William & Thoma, 2018. "A quantitative assessment of Beneficial Management Practices to reduce carbon and reactive nitrogen footprints and phosphorus losses on dairy farms in the US Great Lakes region," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 10-25.
    5. Karl S. Zimmerer & Steven J. Vanek, 2016. "Toward the Integrated Framework Analysis of Linkages among Agrobiodiversity, Livelihood Diversification, Ecological Systems, and Sustainability amid Global Change," Land, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-28, April.
    6. Lacombe, Camille & Couix, Nathalie & Hazard, Laurent, 2018. "Designing agroecological farming systems with farmers: A review," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 208-220.
    7. Cooper, Gregory S. & Rich, Karl M. & Shankar, Bhavani & Rana, Vinay & Ratna, Nazmun N. & Kadiyala, Suneetha & Alam, Mohammad J. & Nadagouda, Sharan B., 2021. "Identifying ‘win-win-win’ futures from inequitable value chain trade-offs: A system dynamics approach," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    8. repec:mth:jas888:v:6:y:2018:i:3:p:158-173 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Hammond, Jim & Rosenblum, Nathaniel & Breseman, Dana & Gorman, Léo & Manners, Rhys & van Wijk, Mark T. & Sibomana, Milindi & Remans, Roseline & Vanlauwe, Bernard & Schut, Marc, 2020. "Towards actionable farm typologies: Scaling adoption of agricultural inputs in Rwanda," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    10. Bedi, Shaibu Mellon & Azzarri, Carlo & Kotu, Bekele Hundi & Kornher, Lukas, 2021. "Scaling-up Agricultural Innovations: Who Should be Targeted?," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315267, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Berrueta, Cecilia & Giménez, Gustavo & Dogliotti, Santiago, 2021. "Scaling up from crop to farm level: Co-innovation framework to improve vegetable farm systems sustainability," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    12. Xiaolin Yang & Jinran Xiong & Taisheng Du & Xiaotang Ju & Yantai Gan & Sien Li & Longlong Xia & Yanjun Shen & Steven Pacenka & Tammo S. Steenhuis & Kadambot H. M. Siddique & Shaozhong Kang & Klaus But, 2024. "Diversifying crop rotation increases food production, reduces net greenhouse gas emissions and improves soil health," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    13. Giller, Ken E. & Andersson, Jens & Delaune, Thomas & Silva, João Vasco & Descheemaeker, Katrien & van de Ven, Gerrie & Schut, Antonius G.T. & van Wijk, Mark & Hammond, Jim & Hochman, Zvi & Taulya, God, 2022. "IFAD Research Series 83: The future of farming: who will produce our food?," IFAD Research Series 322005, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
    14. Le Gal, P.-Y. & Dugué, P. & Faure, G. & Novak, S., 2011. "How does research address the design of innovative agricultural production systems at the farm level? A review," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(9), pages 714-728.
    15. Jeetendra Prakash Aryal & Dil Bahadur Rahut & Tek B. Sapkota & Ritika Khurana & Arun Khatri-Chhetri, 2020. "Climate change mitigation options among farmers in South Asia," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 3267-3289, April.
    16. Juan Cruz Colazo & Juan de Dios Herrero & Ricardo Sager & Maria Laura Guzmán & Mohammad Zaman, 2022. "Contribution of Integrated Crop Livestock Systems to Climate Smart Agriculture in Argentina," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-11, November.
    17. Tang, Kai, 2024. "Agricultural adaptation to the environmental and social consequences of climate change in mixed farming systems: Evidence from North Xinjiang, China," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    18. Chen, Le & Rejesus, Roderick M. & Aglasan, Serkan & Hagen, Stephen & Salas, William, 2022. "The Impact of No-Till Production on Agricultural Land Values in the US Midwest," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322445, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    19. Marcos Jiménez Martínez & Christine Fürst, 2021. "Simulating the Capacity of Rainfed Food Crop Species to Meet Social Demands in Sudanian Savanna Agro-Ecologies," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-28, August.
    20. Jindo, Keiji & Schut, Antonius G.T. & Langeveld, Johannes W.A., 2020. "Sustainable intensification in Western Kenya: Who will benefit?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    21. Jin Zhang & Lan-Fang Wu, 2021. "Impact of Tillage and Crop Residue Management on the Weed Community and Wheat Yield in a Wheat–Maize Double Cropping System," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-13, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:3:p:1153-:d:317009. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.