Occupying the Wet Prairie: The Role of Artificial Drainage in Story County, Iowa

Hewes, Leslie; Frandson, Phillip E.

doi:10.2307/2561045

Cited by 9 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…Modern tile drains are composed of corrugated plastic tubing and are typically installed at depths of 1-2 m to control the elevation of the water table below the soil surface (Hillel, 1998). The economic benefits of artificial drainage are well understood by Midwestern farmers, who have invested heavily in drainage systems to reduce soil moisture, surface overland flow, and soil erosion, and increase land value, ease of equipment operation, and production of first class crops such as corn and soy (Burns, 1954;Fausey et al, 1987;Hewes and Frandson, 1952;Johnston, 2013;McCorvie and Lant, 1993). Installation or enhancement of tile drainage systems often occurs simultaneously with land conversion from wild hay and small grains to soybeans, as Fig.…”

Section: Artificial Drainage Improves Agricultural Productivity But Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Installation or enhancement of tile drainage systems often occurs simultaneously with land conversion from wild hay and small grains to soybeans, as Fig. S1 demonstrates in the Supplement (Blann et al, 2009;Burns, 1954;Hewes and Frandson, 1952). Conversion of perennial grasses to corn and soybean rotations does not necessarily lead to a reduction in ET over the course of an entire growing season, at least for well-drained soils (Hamilton et al, 2015).…”

Section: Artificial Drainage Improves Agricultural Productivity But Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Artificial drainage installation has typically coincided with the replacement of hay and small grains for soybeans as shown in Fig. S1 in the Supplement (Burns, 1954;Hewes and Frandson, 1952). Therefore we use these annual crop data as another indication of LULC changes.…”

Section: Records Of Lulc Change During the Twentieth And Twenty-firstmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Human amplified changes in precipitation–runoff patterns in large river basins of the Midwestern United States

Kelly

Takbiri

Belmont

et al. 2017

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Complete transformations of land cover from prairie, wetlands, and hardwood forests to row crop agriculture and urban centers are thought to have caused profound changes in hydrology in the Upper Midwestern US since the 1800s. In this study, we investigate four large (23 000-69 000 km 2 ) Midwest river basins that span climate and land use gradients to understand how climate and agricultural drainage have influenced basin hydrology over the last 79 years. We use daily, monthly, and annual flow metrics to document streamflow changes and discuss those changes in the context of precipitation and land use changes. Since 1935, flow, precipitation, artificial drainage extent, and corn and soybean acreage have increased across the region. In extensively drained basins, we observe 2 to 4 fold increases in low flows and 1.5 to 3 fold increases in high and extreme flows. Using a water budget, we determined that the storage term has decreased in intensively drained and cultivated basins by 30-200 % since 1975, but increased by roughly 30 % in the less agricultural basin. Storage has generally decreased during spring and summer months and increased during fall and winter months in all watersheds. Thus, the loss of storage and enhanced hydrologic connectivity and efficiency imparted by artificial agricultural drainage appear to have amplified the streamflow response to precipitation increases in the Midwest. Future increases in precipitation are likely to further intensify drainage practices and increase streamflows. Increased streamflow has implications for flood risk, channel adjustment, and sediment and nutrient transport and presents unique challenges for agriculture and water resource management in the Midwest. Better documentation of existing and future drain tile and ditch installation is needed to further understand the role of climate versus drainage across multiple spatial and temporal scales.

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Section: Artificial Drainage Improves Agricultural Productivity But Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Artificial Drainage Improves Agricultural Productivity But Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Human amplified changes in precipitation–runoff patterns in large river basins of the Midwestern United States

Kelly

Takbiri

Belmont

et al. 2017

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…Here the poorly-drained prairie and marsh were more common (Hewes, 1950;Hewes, 1951;Hewes and Frandson, 1952). The well-drained prairie was described as highly fertile (Dondore, 1926;Berry, 192?…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The well-drained prairie was described as highly fertile (Dondore, 1926;Berry, 192? ), whereas the poorly-drained prairie was filled with water most of the season and "capable of producing nothing but wild rice, frogs, and mosquitoes" (Hewes and Frandson, 1952).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Species composition, distribution, and phytosociology of Kalsow Prairie, a mesic tall-grass prairie in Iowa

Brotherson

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Signatures of Hydrologic Function Across the Critical Zone Observatory Network

Wlostowski

Molotch

Anderson

et al. 2021

Water Resources Research

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Despite a multitude of small catchment studies, we lack a deep understanding of how variations in critical zone architecture lead to variations in hydrologic states and fluxes. This study characterizes hydrologic dynamics of 15 catchments of the U.S. Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) network where we hypothesized that our understanding of subsurface structure would illuminate patterns of hydrologic partitioning. The CZOs collect data sets that characterize the physical, chemical, and biological architecture of the subsurface, while also monitoring hydrologic fluxes such as streamflow, precipitation, and evapotranspiration. For the first time, we collate time series of hydrologic variables across the CZO network and begin the process of examining hydrologic signatures across sites. We find that catchments with low baseflow indices and high runoff sensitivity to storage receive most of their precipitation as rain and contain clay‐rich regolith profiles, prominent argillic horizons, and/or anthropogenic modifications. In contrast, sites with high baseflow indices and low runoff sensitivity to storage receive the majority of precipitation as snow and have more permeable regolith profiles. The seasonal variability of water balance components is a key control on the dynamic range of hydraulically connected water in the critical zone. These findings lead us to posit that water balance partitioning and streamflow hydraulics are linked through the coevolution of critical zone architecture but that much work remains to parse these controls out quantitatively.

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Occupying the Wet Prairie: The Role of Artificial Drainage in Story County, Iowa

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Human amplified changes in precipitation–runoff patterns in large river basins of the Midwestern United States

Human amplified changes in precipitation–runoff patterns in large river basins of the Midwestern United States

Species composition, distribution, and phytosociology of Kalsow Prairie, a mesic tall-grass prairie in Iowa

Signatures of Hydrologic Function Across the Critical Zone Observatory Network

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