Hotspots of irrigation-related US greenhouse gas emissions from multiple sources

Avery W. Driscoll; Landon T. Marston; Stephen M. Ogle; Noah J. Planavsky; Md Abu Bakar Siddik; Shannon Spencer; Shuang Zhang; Nathaniel D. Mueller

doi:10.1038/s44221-024-00283-w

Hotspots of irrigation-related US greenhouse gas emissions from multiple sources

Avery W. Driscoll, Landon T. Marston, Stephen M. Ogle, Noah J. Planavsky, Md Abu Bakar Siddik, Shannon Spencer, Shuang Zhang, Nathaniel D. Mueller

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Irrigation effectively increases yields and buffers against intensifying climatic stressors to crop productivity but also produces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through several pathways including energy use for pumping (on farm and for interbasin water transfers), N₂O emissions from increased denitrification under elevated soil moisture, and degassing of groundwater supersaturated in CO₂. Despite irrigation’s climate adaptation potential, associated GHG emissions remain unquantified. Here we conduct a comprehensive, county-level assessment of US GHG emissions from these irrigation-related pathways, estimating that irrigation produces 18.9 MtCO₂e annually (95% confidence interval 15.2–23.5 Mt), with 12.6 Mt from on-farm pumping, 1.1 Mt from pumping for interbasin transfers, 2.9 Mt from elevated N₂O and 2.4 Mt from groundwater degassing. These emissions are highly spatially concentrated, revealing opportunities for geographically targeted and source-specific GHG mitigation actions. These findings enable strategic consideration of GHG emissions in decision-making associated with irrigation expansion for climate adaptation.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	837-847
Number of pages	11
Journal	Nature Water
Volume	2
Issue number	9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-024-00283-w
State	Published - Sep 2024
Externally published	Yes

Funding

We are grateful to the many individuals at irrigation districts, utility companies and state and federal water management agencies who took the time to discuss their infrastructure and provide data for the interbasin transfer energy use component of this project. A.W.D. acknowledges support from the NSF Research Traineeship programme (DGE-1828902) and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-006784). N.J.P. acknowledges support from Environmental Defense Fund and the Grantham Foundation. S.Z. acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation under grant no. OAC-2209864. L.T.M. acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation grant CBET-2144169 and the US Geological Survey under Grant/Cooperative Agreement No. 13612182-Virgina. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies of the US Geological Survey or the National Science Foundation. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the US Geological Survey or the National Science Foundation.

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title = "Hotspots of irrigation-related US greenhouse gas emissions from multiple sources",

abstract = "Irrigation effectively increases yields and buffers against intensifying climatic stressors to crop productivity but also produces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through several pathways including energy use for pumping (on farm and for interbasin water transfers), N2O emissions from increased denitrification under elevated soil moisture, and degassing of groundwater supersaturated in CO2. Despite irrigation{\textquoteright}s climate adaptation potential, associated GHG emissions remain unquantified. Here we conduct a comprehensive, county-level assessment of US GHG emissions from these irrigation-related pathways, estimating that irrigation produces 18.9 MtCO2e annually (95\% confidence interval 15.2–23.5 Mt), with 12.6 Mt from on-farm pumping, 1.1 Mt from pumping for interbasin transfers, 2.9 Mt from elevated N2O and 2.4 Mt from groundwater degassing. These emissions are highly spatially concentrated, revealing opportunities for geographically targeted and source-specific GHG mitigation actions. These findings enable strategic consideration of GHG emissions in decision-making associated with irrigation expansion for climate adaptation.",

author = "Driscoll, \{Avery W.\} and Marston, \{Landon T.\} and Ogle, \{Stephen M.\} and Planavsky, \{Noah J.\} and Siddik, \{Md Abu Bakar\} and Shannon Spencer and Shuang Zhang and Mueller, \{Nathaniel D.\}",

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AU - Driscoll, Avery W.

AU - Marston, Landon T.

AU - Ogle, Stephen M.

AU - Planavsky, Noah J.

AU - Siddik, Md Abu Bakar

AU - Spencer, Shannon

AU - Zhang, Shuang

AU - Mueller, Nathaniel D.

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N2 - Irrigation effectively increases yields and buffers against intensifying climatic stressors to crop productivity but also produces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through several pathways including energy use for pumping (on farm and for interbasin water transfers), N2O emissions from increased denitrification under elevated soil moisture, and degassing of groundwater supersaturated in CO2. Despite irrigation’s climate adaptation potential, associated GHG emissions remain unquantified. Here we conduct a comprehensive, county-level assessment of US GHG emissions from these irrigation-related pathways, estimating that irrigation produces 18.9 MtCO2e annually (95% confidence interval 15.2–23.5 Mt), with 12.6 Mt from on-farm pumping, 1.1 Mt from pumping for interbasin transfers, 2.9 Mt from elevated N2O and 2.4 Mt from groundwater degassing. These emissions are highly spatially concentrated, revealing opportunities for geographically targeted and source-specific GHG mitigation actions. These findings enable strategic consideration of GHG emissions in decision-making associated with irrigation expansion for climate adaptation.

AB - Irrigation effectively increases yields and buffers against intensifying climatic stressors to crop productivity but also produces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through several pathways including energy use for pumping (on farm and for interbasin water transfers), N2O emissions from increased denitrification under elevated soil moisture, and degassing of groundwater supersaturated in CO2. Despite irrigation’s climate adaptation potential, associated GHG emissions remain unquantified. Here we conduct a comprehensive, county-level assessment of US GHG emissions from these irrigation-related pathways, estimating that irrigation produces 18.9 MtCO2e annually (95% confidence interval 15.2–23.5 Mt), with 12.6 Mt from on-farm pumping, 1.1 Mt from pumping for interbasin transfers, 2.9 Mt from elevated N2O and 2.4 Mt from groundwater degassing. These emissions are highly spatially concentrated, revealing opportunities for geographically targeted and source-specific GHG mitigation actions. These findings enable strategic consideration of GHG emissions in decision-making associated with irrigation expansion for climate adaptation.

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Hotspots of irrigation-related US greenhouse gas emissions from multiple sources

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