Agronomic and environmental impacts of corn production under different water management strategies in the Canadian Prairies

dc.contributor.authorCordeiro, Marcos R. C.
dc.contributor.examiningcommitteeCicek, Nazim (Biosystems Engineering) Ferguson, Ian (Geological Sciences) Podmore, Terence (Colorado State University)en_US
dc.contributor.supervisorSri Ranjan, Ramanathan (Biosystems Engineering)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2014-01-14T20:59:46Z
dc.date.available2014-01-14T20:59:46Z
dc.date.issued2012en_US
dc.degree.disciplineBiosystems Engineeringen_US
dc.degree.levelDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)en_US
dc.description.abstractA major challenge facing agriculture is to improve water use and minimize environmental impact while increasing productivity levels. This study, carried out in Winkler, Manitoba, tested four water management treatments: no drainage and no irrigation (NDNI as control), no drainage with overhead irrigation (NDIR), free drainage with overhead irrigation (FDIR), and controlled drainage with subirrigation (CDSI). Each treatment was replicated in three plots during two growing seasons in 2010 and 2011. The monitored variables included soil moisture content, water table depth variation, drainage outflow volume and quality, weather parameters, and agronomic indices. In 2010, yields were 8.48 (NDNI), 10.36 (NDIR), 10.10 (FDIR), and 9.22(CDSI) Mg ha-1 with only the mean yield difference for the NDIR and the CDSI treatments being statistically significant (p = 0.014). In 2011, yields were 9.25 (NDNI), 10.47 (NDIR), 11.28 (FDIR), and 9.49 (CDSI) Mg ha-1 with no statistically significant differences in yield. In 2010, the exports of NO3-N (138 kg ha-1), PO4-P (0.6 kg ha-1) and salts (2.34 Mg ha-1) from the FDIR treatment were significantly larger (p <0.05) than exports from CDSI, which were 0.07 kg ha-1, 0.08 kg ha-1, and 0.41 Mg ha-1, respectively. In 2011, the exports of NO3-N (36 kg ha-1), PO4-P (0.27 kg ha-1), and salts (1.1 Mg ha-1) from FDIR were significantly larger (p < 0.05) than the exports from CDSI which were 10 kg ha-1, 0.08 kg ha-1, and 0.39 Mg ha-1, respectively. These results indicate that irrigation was the main factor driving corn yields under the conditions prevailing in the Canadian Prairies, while subsurface drainage had a beneficial impact when the beginning of the season was wet. Also, this study showed the advantage of controlled drainage over free drainage in reducing the nutrients and salt exports.en_US
dc.description.noteFebruary 2014en_US
dc.identifier.citation: Cordeiro, M. R. C., and R. Sri Ranjan. 2012. Corn yield response to drainage and subirrigation in the Canadian prairies. Transactions of the ASABE 55(5): 1771-1780. St. Joseph, Mich.: American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineersen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1993/23218
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherAmerican Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineersen_US
dc.rightsopen accessen_US
dc.subjectWater managementen_US
dc.subjectSubsurface drainageen_US
dc.subjectIrrigationen_US
dc.subjectCornen_US
dc.subjectCanadian Prairiesen_US
dc.titleAgronomic and environmental impacts of corn production under different water management strategies in the Canadian Prairiesen_US
dc.typedoctoral thesisen_US
local.subject.manitobayesen_US
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