Abstract
Hydrologic modeling was used to estimate potential changes in nutrients, suspended sediment, and streamflow in various biomass production scenarios with conservation practices under different landscape designs. Two major corn and soybean croplands were selected for study: the South Fork of the Iowa River watershed and the headwater of the Raccoon River watershed. A physically based model, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool, was used to simulate hydrology and water quality under different scenarios with conservation practices and biomass production. Scenarios are based on conservation practices and biomass production; riparian buffer (RB), saturated buffer, and grassed waterways; various stover harvest rates of 30%, 45%, and 70% with and without winter cover crops; and conversion of marginal land to switchgrass. Conservation practices and landscape design with different biomass feedstocks were shown to significantly improve water quality while supporting sustainable biomass production. Model results for nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended sediments were analyzed temporally at spatial scales that varied from hydrologic response units to the entire watershed. With conservation practices, water quality could potentially improve by reducing nitrogen loads by up to 20%–30% (stover harvest with cover crop), phosphorus loads by 20%–40% (RB), and sediment loads by 30%–70% (stover harvest with cover crop and RB).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1030-1044 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Journal of the American Water Resources Association |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2020 The Authors. Journal of the American Water Resources Association published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Water Resources Association
Funding
This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Bioenergy Technology Office (BETO) of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office (EERE), under contract DE‐AC02‐06CH11357. Partial support for this research was provided by National Science Foundation initiative, Award No. 1761772, “An Integrated Big Data Framework for Water Quality Issues in the UMRB.” The authors thank Sarah Porter, Calvin Wolter, and Karl Gesch (USDA‐ARS) for providing ACPF data on conservation practices in the South Fork of Iowa River basin and the HRRW. Furthermore, we thank Kristen Johnson (BETO) for guidance and insights, and Dave Muth and Gabe McNunn (both of AgSolver) for data and expertise that greatly assisted this work. Argonne National Laboratory (“Argonne”) is a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC, under contract DE‐AC02‐06CH11357. The views and opinions of document authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the U.S. Department of Energy or any agency thereof, Argonne National Laboratory, or UChicago Argonne, LLC. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Bioenergy Technology Office (BETO) of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office (EERE), under contract DE-AC02-06CH11357. Partial support for this research was provided by National Science Foundation initiative, Award No. 1761772, ?An Integrated Big Data Framework for Water Quality Issues in the UMRB.? The authors thank Sarah Porter, Calvin Wolter, and Karl Gesch (USDA-ARS) for providing ACPF data on conservation practices in the South Fork of Iowa River basin and the HRRW. Furthermore, we thank Kristen Johnson (BETO) for guidance and insights, and Dave Muth and Gabe McNunn (both of AgSolver) for data and expertise that greatly assisted this work.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Dave Muth and Gabe McNunn | |
| HRRW | |
| Kristen Johnson | |
| UMRB | |
| USDA-ARS | |
| National Science Foundation | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering | 1761772 |
| Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy | DE‐AC02‐06CH11357 |
| Argonne National Laboratory | |
| Bioenergy Technologies Office |
Keywords
- SWAT
- bioenergy
- conservation practices
- hydrologic modeling
- nutrients
- water quality
