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Agricultural Water Conservation Clearinghouse

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https://hdl.handle.net/10217/195470
The Agricultural Water Conservation Clearinghouse (AWCC) was superseded by the Irrigation Innovation Consortium in April 2018. The AWCC was a comprehensive information resource system with a central focus on agricultural water management and conservation. Subject areas covered Irrigation Systems, Ag Water Conservation Policy, Cropping Systems, Drought Tolerance, Water Supply and Storage, and more. These digital collections include topic specific conference proceedings, government documents, white papers, and reports.

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Browsing Agricultural Water Conservation Clearinghouse by Author "Aiken, Rob, author"

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    Climate change impacts on crop growth in the central High Plains
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2009-02) Aiken, Rob, author
    Historic annual increases in global carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration are expected to continue; increased global temperatures are forecast as well. Crop productivity can benefit from increased ambient CO2 as similar assimilation rates can be maintained with smaller canopy conductance, resulting in modestly reduced crop water requirement. Cool-season grass crops and broadleaf crops will likely gain photosynthetic efficiencies with elevated CO2 levels. When elevated temperatures exceed optimal conditions for assimilation, stress responses can include damage to the light-harvesting complex of leaves, impaired carbon-fixing enzymes, thereby reducing components of yield including seed potential, seed set, grain fill rate, and grain fill duration. Field studies conducted under conditions of elevated CO2 indicate that benefits of elevated CO2 are reduced by heat-induced stress responses. Crop cultural practices can be adapted to avoid stress, genetic advances may yield germplasm capable of tolerating or resisting stress factors.
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    Conventional, strip, and no tillage corn production under different irrigation capacities
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2007-02) Lamm, Freddie, author; Aiken, Rob, author
    Corn production was compared from 2004 to 2006 for three plant populations (25,400, 28,600 or 32,000 plants /acre) under conventional, strip and no tillage systems for irrigation capacities limited to 1 inch every 4, 6 or 8 days. Corn yield increased approximately 12% from the lowest to highest irrigation capacity in these three years of varying precipitation and near normal crop evapotranspiration. Strip tillage and no tillage had 8.8% and 7% higher grain yields than conventional tillage, respectively. Results suggest that strip tillage obtains the residue benefits of no tillage in reducing evaporation losses without the yield penalty sometimes occurring with high residue. The small increases in total seasonal water use (< 1.5 inch) for strip tillage and no-tillage compared to conventional tillage can probably be explained by the higher grain yields for these tillage systems.
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    Effect of tillage and irrigation capacity on corn production
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2006-02) Lamm, Freddie, author; Aiken, Rob, author
    Corn production was compared in 2004 and 2005 for three plant populations (25,400, 28,600 or 32,000 plants /acre) under conventional, strip and no tillage systems for irrigation capacities limited to 1 inch every 4, 6 or 8 days. Corn yield increased approximately 10% from the lowest to highest irrigation capacity in these two years of relatively normal precipitation and crop evapotranspiration. Strip tillage and no tillage had 5% and 3% higher grain yields than conventional tillage, respectively. Results suggest that strip tillage obtains the residue benefits of no tillage in reducing evaporation losses without the yield penalty sometimes occurring with high residue. The small increases in total seasonal water use (< 1.5 inch) for strip tillage and no-tillage compared to conventional tillage can probably be explained by the higher grain yields for these tillage systems.
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    Irrigation of oilseed crops
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2006-02) Aiken, Rob, author; Lamm, Freddie, author
    Development, water use and yield formation of oilseed crops are inter-related. Greatest yields are expected with a well-established canopy, a plant population sufficient to support a large number of seeds set per acre and favorable weather conditions for an extended seed fill period. Oilseed water requirements closely follow canopy formation and evaporative conditions. Supplemental irrigation scheduled by the water balance method results in higher yields than with irrigation scheduled by growth stage. A straight-line relationship between yield and water use indicates the yield threshold (maximum water use with no expected yield) and yield response to increased water use. When precipitation, available soil water and limited irrigation fail to meet crop water requirements, yield reductions depend on the degree of plant water stress at critical stages of growth. Full-season soybean with full irrigation offers greatest productivity potential. A smaller yield threshold and extensive rooting system for sunflower provides advantages for limited irrigation or double-crop conditions. Winter canola can provide good productivity during fall and spring growing seasons when heat stress can be minimized.
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    Water use of oilseed crops
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011-02) Aiken, Rob, author; Lamm, Freddie, author; Aboukheira, Abdrabbo A., author