Graduate Exit Seminar - Jeremy Salvo

Plan to join Jeremy Salvo's graduate exit seminar on October 4, 2024, at 10:00 am in Kottman Hall 370 or via Zoom. Jeremy will present, "Characterizing the Hydrologic Response of Automated versus Manual Drainage Water Management in Northwest Ohio."

Abstract: Tile drainage is a widely used agricultural management practice, currently draining ~55.6 million acres of land in the US and expanding. Tile drainage has proved to increase crop yields at the expense of increased nutrient loading to surface waters. This nutrient loading is a major driver of harmful algal blooms (HAB), which costs the US millions of dollars annually and can be harmful to human health. Improvements to tile drainage systems are necessary to reduce nutrient loss and HABs, while maintaining agricultural productivity. This study aims to characterize the hydrologic response of automated drainage water management (ADWM) compared to manual drainage water management (MDWM) following precipitation events in terms of discharge amounts, time-to-peak flows and recession, and water level changes in the field and control structures. The study includes three paired-field sites in NW Ohio equipped with ADWM and MDWM, where water level logger data and manual measurements have been collected over an approximately one-year period. While MDWM has been found to improve crop yields and decrease nutrient loss compared to free drainage (FD), management of these systems is laborious, preventing greater adoption. ADWM, on the other hand, requires little labor and allows for the fine spatial and temporal control of water table depths, potentially further reducing discharge and nutrient loss. Since ADWM is an emerging practice, this is among the first paired-field studies to be conducted on ADWM and MDWM. Results indicate that ADWM can reduce discharge compared to MDWM by 8.8% to 89.5%. Recession analysis following precipitation events showed that ADWM can slow groundwater movement compared to MDWM. The potential impact of the study is to provide a non-labor-intensive way to reduce discharge and nutrient loads by retroactively installing ADWM to tile drainage systems.

Advisor: Dr. Steven Lyon