Advances in Precision Conservation
Introduction
Population growth is expected to increase, and the world population is projected to reach 10 billion by 2050, which will decrease the per capita arable land from 0.23 ha in 1995 to 0.14 ha by 2050 (Lal, 1995). More intensive agricultural production will have to meet the increasing food demands for this increasing population, especially because of an increasing demand for land area to be used for biofuels. These increases in intensive production agriculture will have to be accomplished amid the expected environmental changes attributed to Global Warming. Scientists are projecting future changes of weather patterns that include regions with higher evapotranspiration rates, lower precipitation in some areas, and higher precipitation in other areas, which may contribute to higher erosion rates (Hatfield and Prueger, 2004, Lal, 1995, Lal, 2000, Nearing et al., 2004, Pimentel et al., 1995). During the next four decades, soil and water conservation scientists will encounter some of their greatest challenges to maintain sustainability of agricultural systems stressed by increasing food and biofuel demands.
Several scientists have reported on the potential impacts of global population increase, increase in greenhouse gases, and potential effects of climate change on soil and water quality and on soil erosion (Hatfield and Prueger, 2004, Lal, 1995, Lal, 2000, Nearing et al., 2004, Pimentel et al., 1995). There is a concern that if precipitation patterns continue to change, certain future scenarios may cause conservation practices such as crop residue, no-till, and incorporation of manure to lose effectiveness very rapidly, resulting in dramatic increases in runoff, and higher impacts to soil and water quality (Hatfield and Prueger, 2004). It is also estimated that for every 25.4 mm increase in precipitation rate, erosibility increases by 1.7% (Nearing et al., 2004).
Nearing et al. (2004) reported that the relationship between increases in rain, biomass production, and erosion is more complex. Although an increase in rain could increase biomass production, a decrease in biomass may also increase erosion rates. The more difficult area to evaluate was effects of climate change on land use and erosion rates, yet they concluded from their analysis that the average increase in erosibility will be 1.7% per 25.4 mm increase in precipitation. It is important to note that Meisinger and Delgado (2002) reported an average 10–30% of total N inputs in cropping systems are lost due to nitrate leaching. Thus, increases in precipitation and/or more intensive storms could potentially contribute to higher nitrate leaching rates as well. These assessments from Nearing et al., 2004, Hatfield and Prueger, 2004 clearly show the continuing need for soil and water conservation scientists and practitioners to continue looking for alternatives for managing future impacts to soil and water quality.
Scientists and conservation practitioners will have to work together with farmers across all types of soils and weather to increase and sustain higher production to meet the demands of the increasing population, while managing for potential changes in weather patterns. This cooperation will also be necessary to develop cropping systems that produce enough to meet the increasing food and biofuel demands while maximizing soil and water conservation. The implementation of soil and water conservation will be necessary for the sustainability of these intensive efforts to maximize agricultural production. New technologies will help us to increase yields per hectare and these technologies will also be applied to understand and manage agricultural systems and to connect the flows from agricultural systems to natural areas in an effort to manage these regions for maximum yield and agroenvironmental sustainability.
Precision Conservation was originally defined as a set of spatial technologies and procedures linked to mapped variables, which is used to implement conservation management practices that take into account spatial and temporal variability across natural and agricultural systems (Berry et al., 2003). Contrary to Precision Farming that was oriented to maximize yields in agricultural fields, Precision Conservation connects farm fields, grasslands, and range areas with the natural surrounding areas such as buffers, riparian zones, forest, and water bodies (Fig. 1). The goal of Precision Conservation is to use information about surface and underground flows to analyze the systems in order to make the best viable decisions for application of management practices that contribute to conservation of agricultural, rangeland, and natural areas.
Berry et al. (2003) acknowledged that there could be different degrees of Precision Conservation such as the use of nondigital, non-GIS maps and the use of survey methods that can help in the application of spatial conservation practices. However, the original definition of Precision Conservation is technologically based, requiring the integration of spatial technologies such as global positioning systems (GPS), remote sensing (RS), and geographic information systems (GIS) and the ability to analyze spatial relationships within and among mapped data according to three broad map analysis categories: spatial analysis, surface modeling, and spatial data mining (Fig. 2). Since Berry et al. (2003), several other papers related to the topic of Precision Conservation have been published describing how these new technologies can be applied for maximizing Precision Conservation.
Section snippets
Geospatial Technologies
New GIS, GPS, RS, modeling, and computer program technologies are rapidly increasing our capacity to analyze large sets of information in space and time. Traditional statistics used for soil and water conservation studies and assessment of best management practices were initially nonspatial and analyzed a data set by fitting a numerical distribution (e.g., standard normal curve) to generalize the central tendency of the data. The values used for soil and water conservation have traditionally
Identifying Spatial Patterns and Relationships
For more than 8000 years, we have been using maps with features that identify special locations in the landscape to help us navigate. Precision Conservation is a new way to use advanced technologies to integrate thousands of data points and multiple layers of information contained in maps for management and conservation of the agricultural and natural areas. Specifically, Precision Conservation allows us to identify those management landscape combinations that produce or receive significant
Variable erosion and transport (flows of gases, nutrients, and water)
Quine and Zhang (2002) reported that eroded areas of the field with depleted nutrients had lower yields. This spatial relationship between erosion and crop yield is complex since other areas with high soil aggregation were also found to show lower yields (Quine and Zhang, 2002). Evaluation of variable erosion on yield production was more clear when long-term simulations of the field were conducted. Quine and Zhang (2002) conducted a long-term evaluation of 40 years that clearly showed the
Variable flows from field to nonfarm areas
The connection between field and off-site transport was assessed by Feng and Sharratt (2007) using the wind erosion prediction system and GIS. They used this approach to scale the flows from field to region. They reported that, across the entire region in Washington State, wind erosion was higher in the areas with summer fallow rotations. These unprotected areas were more susceptible to wind erosion losses. The amount of wind erosion from the region was attributed to management, not to the crop
Variable hydrology
Qiu et al. (2007) reported that surface runoff is a major contaminant threat to water quality in the USA and proposed that, by incorporating the variable surface area (VSA) hydrology into watershed management practices, we can concentrate our efforts in key areas of the watershed that are the most sensitive. They reported that Hewlett and Hibbert (1967) are credited with the concept of VSAs. Qiu et al. (2007) suggested the need to more closely assess the key management alternatives that will
Current Applications and Trends
The Berry et al. (2003) publication about Precision Conservation generated enough interest that the Soil Science Society of America, Canadian Soil Science Society, Mexican Soil Science Society, and the Division of Soil Water and Management and Conservation celebrated a joint symposium entitled: “Precision Conservation in North America” at the November 1–4, 2004 annual meeting in Seattle, Washington. A special issue of selected papers was published in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
Summary and Conclusions
There are multiple examples of advances in Precision Conservation published during the last 4 years showing how new spatial technologies and the integration of GPS, GIS, RS, and models can be applied to improve management decisions that contribute to Precision Conservation of soil and water. Precision Conservation can more precisely identify where to locate riparian buffers, sediment ponds, nutrient management farms, and other ecological engineering practices to most effectively reduce
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