IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v188y2017icp36-49.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Soil water content monitoring for irrigation management: A geostatistical analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Barker, J. Burdette
  • Franz, Trenton E.
  • Heeren, Derek M.
  • Neale, Christopher M.U.
  • Luck, Joe D.

Abstract

With the increasing attention to site-specific or variable rate irrigation management, it is helpful to reconsider the quantity and placement of soil water monitoring locations in this context. Volumetric soil water content (θv) was monitored using a neutron probe (NP) at 72 locations in a center pivot irrigated field in eastern Nebraska. Variance reduction and temporal stability analyses were performed on θv from shallow (∼top 46cm) and full profile (∼122cm) readings for four monitoring cycles in the 2015 growing season and 2016 preseason. Eleven additional cycles were included for a subset of the data for the temporal stability analysis. The spatial correlation scale for θv was found to be less than the closest spacing of monitoring locations in the study (i.e. <37m). For this field site, approximately three neutron probe monitoring locations were required to determine mean soil water depletion (±2cm) for the field or for a management zone. Little economy would be gained in variance reduction for areal mean θv from using a stratified network for management areas of reasonable size in a center pivot irrigated field. Temporally stable monitoring locations were identified. However, relatively low-cost spatial predictor variables, including elevation, deviation from mean elevation, apparent electrical conductivity, and mean relative difference of interpolated cosmic ray neutron probe surveys, were not consistent predictors of NP mean relative difference. The small range of variability of θv within the study field is thought to be a contributing factor. It is possible that for fields with similar variability, or for site-specific irrigation where zones have been selected to reduce within-zone variance, that sensor quantity is more important than sensor placement in quantifying the areal mean θv for irrigation management.

Suggested Citation

  • Barker, J. Burdette & Franz, Trenton E. & Heeren, Derek M. & Neale, Christopher M.U. & Luck, Joe D., 2017. "Soil water content monitoring for irrigation management: A geostatistical analysis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 36-49.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:188:y:2017:i:c:p:36-49
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2017.03.024
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037837741730104X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2017.03.024?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. Starr, G.C., 2005. "Assessing temporal stability and spatial variability of soil water patterns with implications for precision water management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 72(3), pages 223-243, April.
    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. Jiao, Maqian & Yang, Wenhan & Hu, Wei & Clothier, Brent & Zou, Songyan & Li, Doudou & Di, Nan & Liu, Jinqiang & Liu, Yang & Duan, Jie & Xi, Benye, 2021. "The optimal tensiometer installation position for scheduling border irrigation in Populus tomentosa plantations," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    2. Barker, J. Burdette & Heeren, Derek M. & Neale, Christopher M.U. & Rudnick, Daran R., 2018. "Evaluation of variable rate irrigation using a remote-sensing-based model," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 63-74.
    3. Hodges, Blade & Tagert, Mary Love & Paz, Joel O. & Meng, Qingmin, 2023. "Assessing in-field soil moisture variability in the active root zone using granular matrix sensors," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 282(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. Zhou, Zhenjiang & Plauborg, Finn & Parsons, David & Andersen, Mathias Neumann, 2018. "Potato canopy growth, yield and soil water dynamics under different irrigation systems," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 9-18.
    2. Gao, Lei & Shao, Mingan, 2012. "Temporal stability of shallow soil water content for three adjacent transects on a hillslope," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 41-54.
    3. Reinhard NOLZ & Willibald LOISKANDL & Gerhard KAMMERER & Margarita L. HIMMELBAUER, 2016. "Survey of soil water distribution in a vineyard and implications for subsurface drip irrigation control," Soil and Water Research, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 11(4), pages 250-258.
    4. Yetbarek, Ephrem & Ojha, Richa, 2020. "Spatio-temporal variability of soil moisture in a cropped agricultural plot within the Ganga Basin, India," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    5. de Souza, Edivan Rodrigues & Montenegro, Abelardo Antônio de Assunção & Montenegro, Suzana Maria Gico & de Matos, José de Arimatea, 2011. "Temporal stability of soil moisture in irrigated carrot crops in Northeast Brazil," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 26-32.
    6. Hedley, C.B. & Yule, I.J., 2009. "A method for spatial prediction of daily soil water status for precise irrigation scheduling," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(12), pages 1737-1745, December.
    7. Jia, Yu-Hua & Shao, Ming-An, 2013. "Temporal stability of soil water storage under four types of revegetation on the northern Loess Plateau of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 33-42.
    8. Ramírez-Cuesta, J.M. & Ortuño, M.F. & Gonzalez-Dugo, V. & Zarco-Tejada, P.J. & Parra, M. & Rubio-Asensio, J.S. & Intrigliolo, D.S., 2022. "Assessment of peach trees water status and leaf gas exchange using on-the-ground versus airborne-based thermal imagery," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    9. Reinhard NOLZ & Willibald LOISKANDL, 2017. "Evaluating soil water content data monitored at different locations in a vineyard with regard to irrigation control," Soil and Water Research, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 12(3), pages 152-160.
    10. Starr, G.C. & Rowland, D. & Griffin, T.S. & Olanya, O.M., 2008. "Soil water in relation to irrigation, water uptake and potato yield in a humid climate," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 292-300, March.
    11. Gao, Xiaodong & Wu, Pute & Zhao, Xining & Shi, Yinguang & Wang, Jiawen, 2011. "Estimating spatial mean soil water contents of sloping jujube orchards using temporal stability," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 66-73.

    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:188:y:2017:i:c:p:36-49. 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.