IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v278y2023ics0378377423000124.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is irrigation water an overlooked source of nitrogen in agriculture?

Author

Listed:
  • Serra, J.
  • Paredes, P.
  • Cordovil, CMdS
  • Cruz, S.
  • Hutchings, NJ
  • Cameira, MR

Abstract

The increase of agricultural nitrogen (N) inputs since the 1960s is a key driver in surface- and groundwater nitrate pollution. The water abstracted from these sources can input substantial amounts of reactive nitrogen (NIrrig) if used for crop irrigation. This input is often not included in N related agricultural policies and studies, which are likely underestimating the magnitude of N pollution hotspots and overestimating the N use efficiency. In this study, we provided prima facie evidence that NIrrig is a neglected source of N in irrigated systems. The NIrrig was computed for 278 municipalities in mainland Portugal along the period 1995–2019 based on the gross irrigation requirements and nitrate concentration in ground- and surface water sources. The former was derived using two complementary approaches, using the AquaCrop and GlobWat models, while the latter were computed following spatially explicit approaches. NIrrig showed annual large fluctuations (6–11 Gg N yr-1), of which 91% was from groundwater sources. Results show that NIrrig averaged 14 ( ± 11) kg N ha-1 yr-1, which is equivalent to 3 ( ± 4) % of the N in synthetic fertilisers. This input was higher in the municipalities that simultaneously present high irrigation demand and the nitrate-contaminated groundwater as an irrigation source. In these cases, located in Nitrate Vulnerable Zones, NIrrig reached up to 95 kg N ha-1 yr-1 and more than 80% of the N in synthetic fertilizers. This study highlights the importance of linking water and nutrient policies to better gain insight on NIrrig, for which the current study provided for a simple modelling framework.

Suggested Citation

  • Serra, J. & Paredes, P. & Cordovil, CMdS & Cruz, S. & Hutchings, NJ & Cameira, MR, 2023. "Is irrigation water an overlooked source of nitrogen in agriculture?," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:278:y:2023:i:c:s0378377423000124
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2023.108147
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377423000124
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2023.108147?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pereira, Luis S. & Paredes, Paula & Rodrigues, Gonçalo C. & Neves, Manuela, 2015. "Modeling malt barley water use and evapotranspiration partitioning in two contrasting rainfall years. Assessing AquaCrop and SIMDualKc models," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 239-254.
    2. Fraga, Helder & Pinto, Joaquim G. & Santos, João A., 2020. "Olive tree irrigation as a climate change adaptation measure in Alentejo, Portugal," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    3. Li, Xiang & Takahashi, Taro & Suzuki, Nobuhiro & Kaiser, Harry M., 2011. "The impact of climate change on maize yields in the United States and China," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(4), pages 348-353, April.
    4. Paredes, P. & Pereira, L.S. & Almorox, J. & Darouich, H., 2020. "Reference grass evapotranspiration with reduced data sets: Parameterization of the FAO Penman-Monteith temperature approach and the Hargeaves-Samani equation using local climatic variables," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    5. Iqbal, M. Anjum & Shen, Yanjun & Stricevic, Ruzica & Pei, Hongwei & Sun, Hongyoung & Amiri, Ebrahim & Penas, Angel & del Rio, Sara, 2014. "Evaluation of the FAO AquaCrop model for winter wheat on the North China Plain under deficit irrigation from field experiment to regional yield simulation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 61-72.
    6. Paredes, P. & Rodrigues, G.C. & Alves, I. & Pereira, L.S., 2014. "Partitioning evapotranspiration, yield prediction and economic returns of maize under various irrigation management strategies," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 27-39.
    7. Zarrouk, Olfa & Francisco, Rita & Pinto-Marijuan, Marta & Brossa, Ricard & Santos, Raquen Raissa & Pinheiro, Carla & Costa, Joaquim Miguel & Lopes, Carlos & Chaves, Maria Manuela, 2012. "Impact of irrigation regime on berry development and flavonoids composition in Aragonez (Syn. Tempranillo) grapevine," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 18-29.
    8. Montoya, F. & Camargo, D. & Ortega, J.F. & Córcoles, J.I. & Domínguez, A., 2016. "Evaluation of Aquacrop model for a potato crop under different irrigation conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 164(P2), pages 267-280.
    9. Mota, Margarida & Marques, Tiago & Pinto, Teresa & Raimundo, Fernando & Borges, António & Caço, João & Gomes-Laranjo, José, 2018. "Relating plant and soil water content to encourage smart watering in chestnut trees," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 30-36.
    10. Valverde, Pedro & Serralheiro, Ricardo & de Carvalho, Mário & Maia, Rodrigo & Oliveira, Bruno & Ramos, Vanessa, 2015. "Climate change impacts on irrigated agriculture in the Guadiana river basin (Portugal)," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 17-30.
    11. Kelly, T.D. & Foster, T., 2021. "AquaCrop-OSPy: Bridging the gap between research and practice in crop-water modeling," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    12. Yang, Chenyao & Fraga, Helder & Ieperen, Wim Van & Santos, João Andrade, 2017. "Assessment of irrigated maize yield response to climate change scenarios in Portugal," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 178-190.
    13. Wolfgang Cramer & Joël Guiot & Marianela Fader & Joaquim Garrabou & Jean-Pierre Gattuso & Ana Iglesias & Manfred A. Lange & Piero Lionello & Maria Carmen Llasat & Shlomit Paz & Josep Peñuelas & Maria , 2018. "Climate change and interconnected risks to sustainable development in the Mediterranean," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(11), pages 972-980, November.
    14. Xuhui Wang & Christoph Müller & Joshua Elliot & Nathaniel D. Mueller & Philippe Ciais & Jonas Jägermeyr & James Gerber & Patrice Dumas & Chenzhi Wang & Hui Yang & Laurent Li & Delphine Deryng & Christ, 2021. "Global irrigation contribution to wheat and maize yield," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-8, December.
    15. Saadi, Sameh & Todorovic, Mladen & Tanasijevic, Lazar & Pereira, Luis S. & Pizzigalli, Claudia & Lionello, Piero, 2015. "Climate change and Mediterranean agriculture: Impacts on winter wheat and tomato crop evapotranspiration, irrigation requirements and yield," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 103-115.
    16. Cameira, M.R. & Fernando, R.M. & Ahuja, L.R. & Ma, L., 2007. "Using RZWQM to simulate the fate of nitrogen in field soil-crop environment in the Mediterranean region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 90(1-2), pages 121-136, May.
    17. Paredes, Paula & Martins, Diogo S. & Pereira, Luis Santos & Cadima, Jorge & Pires, Carlos, 2018. "Accuracy of daily estimation of grass reference evapotranspiration using ERA-Interim reanalysis products with assessment of alternative bias correction schemes," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 340-353.
    18. Cameira, M.R. & Rolim, João & Valente, Fernanda & Faro, Afonso & Dragosits, Ulrike & Cordovil, Cláudia M.d.S., 2019. "Spatial distribution and uncertainties of nitrogen budgets for agriculture in the Tagus river basin in Portugal – Implications for effectiveness of mitigation measures," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 278-293.
    19. de Wit, Allard & Boogaard, Hendrik & Fumagalli, Davide & Janssen, Sander & Knapen, Rob & van Kraalingen, Daniel & Supit, Iwan & van der Wijngaart, Raymond & van Diepen, Kees, 2019. "25 years of the WOFOST cropping systems model," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 154-167.
    20. He, Wentian & Jiang, Rong & He, Ping & Yang, Jingyi & Zhou, Wei & Ma, Jinchuan & Liu, Yingxia, 2018. "Estimating soil nitrogen balance at regional scale in China’s croplands from 1984 to 2014," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 125-135.
    21. Pereira, L.S. & Paredes, P. & López-Urrea, R. & Hunsaker, D.J. & Mota, M. & Mohammadi Shad, Z., 2021. "Standard single and basal crop coefficients for vegetable crops, an update of FAO56 crop water requirements approach," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    22. Farneselli, Michela & Benincasa, Paolo & Tosti, Giacomo & Simonne, Eric & Guiducci, Marcello & Tei, Francesco, 2015. "High fertigation frequency improves nitrogen uptake and crop performance in processing tomato grown with high nitrogen and water supply," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 52-58.
    23. Tomaz, Alexandra & Palma, José Ferro & Ramos, Tiago & Costa, Maria Natividade & Rosa, Elizabete & Santos, Marta & Boteta, Luís & Dôres, José & Patanita, Manuel, 2021. "Yield, technological quality and water footprints of wheat under Mediterranean climate conditions: A field experiment to evaluate the effects of irrigation and nitrogen fertilization strategies," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    24. Paredes, Paula & D’Agostino, Daniela & Assif, Mahdi & Todorovic, Mladen & Pereira, Luis S., 2018. "Assessing potato transpiration, yield and water productivity under various water regimes and planting dates using the FAO dual Kc approach," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 11-24.
    25. Linker, Raphael & Ioslovich, Ilya & Sylaios, Georgios & Plauborg, Finn & Battilani, Adriano, 2016. "Optimal model-based deficit irrigation scheduling using AquaCrop: A simulation study with cotton, potato and tomato," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 236-243.
    26. Sousa, Vicente & Pereira, Luis Santos, 1999. "Regional analysis of irrigation water requirements using kriging: Application to potato crop (Solanum tuberosum L.) at Tras-os-Montes," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(2-3), pages 221-233, May.
    27. Conceição, Nuno & Tezza, Luca & Häusler, Melanie & Lourenço, Sónia & Pacheco, Carlos A. & Ferreira, M. Isabel, 2017. "Three years of monitoring evapotranspiration components and crop and stress coefficients in a deficit irrigated intensive olive orchard," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 138-152.
    28. Pereira, L.S. & Paredes, P. & Hunsaker, D.J. & López-Urrea, R. & Mohammadi Shad, Z., 2021. "Standard single and basal crop coefficients for field crops. Updates and advances to the FAO56 crop water requirements method," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    29. Quemada, M. & Lassaletta, L. & Jensen, L.S. & Godinot, O. & Brentrup, F. & Buckley, C. & Foray, S. & Hvid, S.K. & Oenema, J. & Richards, K.G. & Oenema, O., 2020. "Exploring nitrogen indicators of farm performance among farm types across several European case studies," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Jovanovic, N. & Pereira, L.S. & Paredes, P. & Pôças, I. & Cantore, V. & Todorovic, M., 2020. "A review of strategies, methods and technologies to reduce non-beneficial consumptive water use on farms considering the FAO56 methods," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    2. Pereira, L.S. & Paredes, P. & Melton, F. & Johnson, L. & Mota, M. & Wang, T., 2021. "Prediction of crop coefficients from fraction of ground cover and height: Practical application to vegetable, field and fruit crops with focus on parameterization," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
    3. Darouich, Hanaa & Karfoul, Razan & Ramos, Tiago B. & Moustafa, Ali & Shaheen, Baraa & Pereira, Luis S., 2021. "Crop water requirements and crop coefficients for jute mallow (Corchorus olitorius L.) using the SIMDualKc model and assessing irrigation strategies for the Syrian Akkar region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    4. Liu, Meihan & Shi, Haibin & Paredes, Paula & Ramos, Tiago B. & Dai, Liping & Feng, Zhuangzhuang & Pereira, Luis S., 2022. "Estimating and partitioning maize evapotranspiration as affected by salinity using weighing lysimeters and the SIMDualKc model," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    5. Paredes, Paula & Trigo, Isabel & de Bruin, Henk & Simões, Nuno & Pereira, Luis S., 2021. "Daily grass reference evapotranspiration with Meteosat Second Generation shortwave radiation and reference ET products," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    6. Minhas, P.S. & Ramos, Tiago B. & Ben-Gal, Alon & Pereira, Luis S., 2020. "Coping with salinity in irrigated agriculture: Crop evapotranspiration and water management issues," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    7. Martínez-Romero, A. & López-Urrea, R. & Montoya, F. & Pardo, J.J. & Domínguez, A., 2021. "Optimization of irrigation scheduling for barley crop, combining AquaCrop and MOPECO models to simulate various water-deficit regimes," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    8. Ramos, Tiago B. & Darouich, Hanaa & Oliveira, Ana R. & Farzamian, Mohammad & Monteiro, Tomás & Castanheira, Nádia & Paz, Ana & Gonçalves, Maria C. & Pereira, Luís S., 2023. "Water use and soil water balance of Mediterranean tree crops assessed with the SIMDualKc model in orchards of southern Portugal," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 279(C).
    9. Ran, Hui & Kang, Shaozhong & Li, Fusheng & Tong, Ling & Ding, Risheng & Du, Taisheng & Li, Sien & Zhang, Xiaotao, 2017. "Performance of AquaCrop and SIMDualKc models in evapotranspiration partitioning on full and deficit irrigated maize for seed production under plastic film-mulch in an arid region of China," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 20-32.
    10. Paredes, Paula & D’Agostino, Daniela & Assif, Mahdi & Todorovic, Mladen & Pereira, Luis S., 2018. "Assessing potato transpiration, yield and water productivity under various water regimes and planting dates using the FAO dual Kc approach," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 11-24.
    11. Pereira, L.S. & Paredes, P. & Jovanovic, N., 2020. "Soil water balance models for determining crop water and irrigation requirements and irrigation scheduling focusing on the FAO56 method and the dual Kc approach," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    12. Wang, Haidong & Cheng, Minghui & Liao, Zhenqi & Guo, Jinjin & Zhang, Fucang & Fan, Junliang & Feng, Hao & Yang, Qiliang & Wu, Lifeng & Wang, Xiukang, 2023. "Performance evaluation of AquaCrop and DSSAT-SUBSTOR-Potato models in simulating potato growth, yield and water productivity under various drip fertigation regimes," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    13. Ran, Hui & Kang, Shaozhong & Li, Fusheng & Du, Taisheng & Tong, Ling & Li, Sien & Ding, Risheng & Zhang, Xiaotao, 2018. "Parameterization of the AquaCrop model for full and deficit irrigated maize for seed production in arid Northwest China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 438-450.
    14. Liu, Meihan & Paredes, Paula & Shi, Haibin & Ramos, Tiago B. & Dou, Xu & Dai, Liping & Pereira, Luis S., 2022. "Impacts of a shallow saline water table on maize evapotranspiration and groundwater contribution using static water table lysimeters and the dual Kc water balance model SIMDualKc," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    15. Pereira, L.S. & Paredes, P. & Hunsaker, D.J. & López-Urrea, R. & Mohammadi Shad, Z., 2021. "Standard single and basal crop coefficients for field crops. Updates and advances to the FAO56 crop water requirements method," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    16. Qiu, Rangjian & Li, Longan & Liu, Chunwei & Wang, Zhenchang & Zhang, Baozhong & Liu, Zhandong, 2022. "Evapotranspiration estimation using a modified crop coefficient model in a rotated rice-winter wheat system," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    17. Adeboye, Omotayo B. & Schultz, Bart & Adekalu, Kenneth O. & Prasad, Krishna C., 2019. "Performance evaluation of AquaCrop in simulating soil water storage, yield, and water productivity of rainfed soybeans (Glycine max L. merr) in Ile-Ife, Nigeria," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 1130-1146.
    18. Ahmadzadeh Araji, Hamidreza & Wayayok, Aimrun & Massah Bavani, Alireza & Amiri, Ebrahim & Abdullah, Ahmad Fikri & Daneshian, Jahanfar & Teh, C.B.S., 2018. "Impacts of climate change on soybean production under different treatments of field experiments considering the uncertainty of general circulation models," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 63-71.
    19. Peddinti, Srinivasa Rao & Kambhammettu, BVN P, 2019. "Dynamics of crop coefficients for citrus orchards of central India using water balance and eddy covariance flux partition techniques," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 68-77.
    20. Paredes, Paula & Rodrigues, Gonçalo C. & Cameira, Maria do Rosário & Torres, Maria Odete & Pereira, Luis S., 2017. "Assessing yield, water productivity and farm economic returns of malt barley as influenced by the sowing dates and supplemental irrigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 132-143.

    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:eee:agiwat:v:278:y:2023:i:c:s0378377423000124. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat .

    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.