CHANGE OF VEGETATION STRESS ON THE CANTERBURY PLAINS DUE TO CHANGES IN FARMING PRACTICES Hamish Kingsbury, GEOG313, University of Canterbury CONTENTS 1 Introduction 2 2 Methods 3 2.1 Data 3 2.2 Processing 4 2.3 Analysis 4 2.4 Validating 5 3 Results 6 4 Conclusion 8 4.1 Limitations 8 Appendix A 10 Appendix B 11 Appendix B Cont. 12 Appendix C 13 1 INTRODUCTION The Canterbury region is the second largest dairy producer in the country (Statistics New Zealand, n.d.). Over the period of 2007 to 2012, the region has seen an increase of 60,000 hectares of irrigated farm land (Hills, 2013) due to the conversion of beef, sheep and crop farms to water intensive dairy farming. There has also been an increase of 58% in the number of dairy farms and a 31% increase in the average herd size of dairy farms (Burns, 2013). For maximum production, sufficient irrigation is required for dairy farms (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2000). Therefore dairying requires at least ten times more water than other farming practices (Ward & McKague, 2007). Over the summer months of December, January and February, this irrigation increase would represent a decrease in the amount of stressed vegetation in the study area. The study area is a 30km2 section of the Canterbury Plains, situated between the Waimakariri and Rakaia Rivers (Figure 2), to the west of Christchurch City. It falls within Path 74, Row 90 of Landsat’s reference system. The area encompasses a variety of land use
The aim is to identify and associate landforms, rock types and soils to the natural environment and its plants and animals and also to investigate the history of the local environment, comprising human impacts over the last 50 years. The impact of human alterations to the environment includes increased soil erosion and changes in river flows.
The western prairies provinces (WPP) have an area of two million km2, these regions are the main agricultural and food producing regions in all of Canada (Schindler, 2006). As global warming increases, more water will be used for irrigation for crops. Every year, 2.5 km3 of water is used for irrigation on 1 million acres of land. The water comes from reservoirs and lakes that trap snowmelt run-off from the Rocky Mountains, however only twenty percent of this water is returned to the rivers. The WPP temperatures have increased by 4 degrees since 1970 (Schindler, 2006. Most of the rural areas are not receiving 14-24% of their previous annual precipitation in the 1900’s. The summer flows have decreased 20-84% due to the increased warming through its effects on evapotranspiration and evaporation (Schindler, 2001). Low water flows can cause an escalation of water retention that results in increased nutrient retention, thus proliferating Eutrophication. (Helmer,1999). This imbalance between water evaporation, water usage and water replenishment will create scarce resource for Western Canada’s near future.
Professor George Frisvold develops his argument by illustrating the facts through graphs. His use of statistics supports his point that current agricultural systems are insufficient in conserving water. Because of the current climate change, water conservation has gained importance. Frisvold presents analyses of current strategies and suggests how national level changes in order to provide the change in the government’s involvement in water conservation in agriculture. The intended audience is readers that are interested in the environment, and more specifically interested or involved in the conservation of natural resources. The issue of agriculture’s involvement in the environment has many different effects. In this precis writing process
Severe water scarcity could be imminent in the not so distant future. Flooding crop furrows has been an inexpensive irrigation method for over six thousand years. Though traditional, it is very wasteful. An excessive amount of the water evaporates into he air, or soaks into the ground while the plants receive very little. The excess water drains into rivers and underground aquifers. The water running from the furrows is polluted with fertilizers. The constant use of flooding creates erosion, waterlogging and salinization of the soil. 40 percent of the world’s food grows on irrigated soil.
Living on a farm for the first half of my life, I know that my dad and many of our neighbors’ schedules revolved around the rain. Aquaponic and hydroponic methods of farming both provide dramatic reduction in water usage. One system designed by Nate Storey claims to be able to reduce water usage substantially (2014). He says that a similar sized back yard garden will use twenty times the water as hydroponic/aquaponics system. Other systems have seen similar reduction in water usage, because unlike traditional farming with irrigation, aquaponics and hydroponics is a closed system that recirculates water multiple times so that most water loss is through evaporation and the plants using it for osmosis. In traditional farming, water is lost to runoff or evaporates before the crops have a chance to use it. Moreover, aquaponics was originally mentioned as a way to reduce fish imports and allow people of inland populations to have locally raised fish and produce in the Virgin Islands (Rakocy 2000). With the need to provide food, particularly meat, aquaponically raised fish provide an alternative to shipping fish inland from the coasts or international
California is the leading state in agricultural production; however, the state has taken a blow from this four-year drought. Farmers have been forced to re-evaluate their irrigation systems and make necessary changes to conserve water. In order to judge the agricultural water use efficiency, scientists are using a ratio of evapotranspiration of the crop grown to the water applied to the crop. Evapotranspiration is the total evaporation and plant transpiration from land surface to the atmosphere (Marin et al. 2015). Through various
However, many of the worlds irrigation systems are found in arid, semi arid environments, which climate change will alter significantly in the future (J. D, Connor, Schwabe, K. King, D. Knapp, K. 2011). Nearly one third of the worlds Nearly one-third of the irrigated land worldwide are affected by salinization (Schwabe et al., 2011e).
Water availability of both surface and ground water has become a major problem due to high demand. On average, 320 gallons of water are used per day by each household in America, 30 percent of which is used outdoors (EPA, 2015). In Florida alone, total water withdrawals are expected to increase by almost 21 percent by the year 2030 (Water use trends in Florida, 2014). I believe the high volume of water being used is not the sole issue; it is the source of our water as well as our water management practices. Some experts estimate that as much as 50 percent of water used for outdoor irrigation is lost through evaporation (EPA, 2015). This loss of water happens when plants or grasses are watered at certain times during the day and is a direct result of Florida’s water mismanagement. Commercial and residential vegetation has been watered too often and at the wrong times for far too long and it needs to stop unless we want to see our aquifers dry up entirely.
Understanding the different agricultural sectors practice in Wisconsin is crucial in understanding how the drought affected the ebonies of scale. Farming practiced can be broadly placed under two categories; Livestock farming and Crop farming. The relationship between the two levels of farming, can affect one sector in terms of productivity. To illustrate this, the production of short corn dropped by 17%, this translates to 90 million bushels. Short corn is fed on milk producing livestock such as cows and so the overall implication is that milk production would be lower than the previous years (Boyes and Micheal 45).
Water usage for agriculture in Ontario is exceeded by two other sectors but, does play a large part and quite important as it generates a lot of economic revenue for the citizens. In Ontario, the Canadian Government requires all farmers who will be withdrawing more than 50,000 L of water to obtain the “Permit to Take Water”. This allows for the government to monitor how much water is being allotted to the agricultural sector. There are several issues faced by the government when trying to track water usage rates in Ontario. Agricultural water use in Ontario is distributed amongst 60,000 farms (figure 1) mostly in Southern, Ontario (Loë, 2005). The allocation of water in Ontario depends on accurate information from the sources of water, users
In recent years overconsumption of water has drained the earth’s river basins faster than rain can replenish them. An average person’s daily water footprint i.e. the total amount of water consumed to support their lifestyle is 3,800 liters. Most of this consumption relates to the crops that are farmed to provide us with food and clothing. Irrigation consumes an enormous amount of water, and the effects of this are seen at every stage in the food chain. For example 98 percent of the water footprint created by raising beef cattle comes from growing the grain that feeds the cows during their lifetimes. For each kilogram of steak produced, we consume 15,415 liters of water. That’s enough drinking water to last one person nearly 17 years. Growing water footprint is partly a result of our increasing population; but it is also compounded by the fact that irrigation systems, especially in the developing world, are often extremely inefficient. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization states that even a good irrigation scheme is only 50-60 percent efficient. Poor irrigation systems can result in the vast majority of the water being lost to evaporation, seepage and other problems before it reaches the fields. Moreover, once it gets there, if farmers choose to irrigate at the wrong time for example, just before it rains, the water will be wasted and the crops may even be damaged.
We need to save water because we need to save plants. Earth’s oxygen and most of the food comes from plants. Not just us but plants also need water for survival too."Midwest Plan Service guidelines suggest that farms using 2,000 gallons per day" (Consumptive Water Use Restrictions in the Delaware River Basin. 2002. Agricultural and Biological Engineering Fact Sheet F-199, Penn State Extension). This shows that farmers around the world need lots of water to harvest healthy crops which demand a huge amount of water. Farmers may uses a lot of water for plants and animals but they also know techniques to save water. "Good grazing management increases the fields’ water absorption and decreases water runoff, making pastures more drought-resistant." (CUESA intern Janelle Shiozaki ). Rotational grazing is a process in which livestock are moved between fields to help promote pasture regrowth. Other ways farmers can save water is to decomposed organic matter to improve soil structure to help the environment breath better and animals habitat.
Results from the project were ambiguous. We were able to show a statistical correlation between drought and water impairments. However, these results were not always consistent due to the variation in the data. Impairment data is recorded every two years; however, the exact time during that year and weather conditions at that moment the samples are taken are not recorded. Other issues with this data were the lack of consistency in where the test stations are located from year to year. Weather data on the other hand is taken on a daily basis from consistent locations and drought data is compiled every month. Trying to merge or over lay these two types of data proved to be difficult. Due to these issues it is import to point out that correlation does not imply causation. Many other variables could affect water impairment at the time of a drought or
With the growing population of the world, demand for food is increasing. This means that Australian farmers are struggling to provide enough food for the global market, and clean water for irrigation is as important as ever. In Australia, agriculture is the largest consumer of water, representing around 70% of our total annual water consumption. Australia is a major exporter of food, particularly wheat and beef, to the rest of the world. In 2009, 60% of Australia's agricultural produce was exported overseas. Overall meat production is expected to double by 2050, meaning that even more pressure will be put on the Australian meat industry. Recent droughts have meant that less water has been allocated to irrigating crops,
Agriculture is one of the major sector becoming vulnerable to climate-change. Increased incidences of abiotic and biotic stresses are likely to cause serious negative impact on crop production. Abiotic stress is defined as the negative impact of non-living factors on the living organisms in a specific environment. The non-living variable must influence the environment beyond its normal range of variation to adversely affect the performance or individual organism in a significant way. This leads to decrease in the productivity by more than 50% in major crop plants which are growing word wide (Bray et al., 2000). Increased water stress, reduction in rainfall and increased air temperature are the major reasons for yield decline in wheat and paddy crops in many parts of South Asia. The average increase in temperature per decade is measured to be 0.28 ºC over land and 0.12 ºC over ocean and predicted that it is likely to rise further to a maximum of 2.5 ºC by 2050 and 5.8 ºC by 2100 (Jones et al., 1999; Grover et al., 2011). The principal abiotic stresses in India are drought or soil moisture stress, high temperatures, soil salinity/alkalinity, low pH and metal toxicity stresses that affect nearly two-thirds area forming parts of the arid and semi arid eco systems (Grover et al., 2011).