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This dataset consists of a series of rasters covering the conterminous United States. Each raster is a one kilometer (km) grid for 18 selected Census of Agriculture statistics mapped to land use pixels for the time period 1950 to 2012. A supplemental set of 9 statistics mapped at the entire county level are also provided as 1-km rasters. The rasters are posted as ArcGIS grids. The statistics represent values for crops, livestock, irrigation, fertilizer, and manure usage. Most statistics are mapped for all 14 Census of Agriculture reporting years in that time frame: 1950, 1954, 1959, 1964, 1969, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007, and 2012.
The upper Colorado River system is the habitat of several endangered fish: Kendall Warm Springs dace, Colorado squawfish, humpback chub, and bonytail chub. The single most important factor contributing to the decline of these species has been the construction and operation of dams and reservoirs, which have effected flow, temperature, chemistry, biota, and migration routes. Water depletion amounting to about 25% of the total has also had similar effects, particularly by eliminating the backwater nursery areas. A predicted decrease in agricultural use and increase in energy development use would decrease the amount of used irrigation water percolating back into the groundwater and streams. In addition, water allocated...
Forage production in irrigated mountain meadows plays a vital role in the livestock industry in Colorado and Wyoming. Mountain meadows are areas of intensive fertilization and irrigation which may impact regional CH4 and N2O fluxes. Nitrogen fertilization typically increases yields, but N-use efficiency is generally low. Neither the amount of fertilizer-N recovered by the forage nor the effect on N2O and CH4 emissions were known. These trace gases are long-lived in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming potential and stratospheric ozone depletion. From 1991 through 1993 studies were conducted to determine the effect of N source, and timing of N-fertilization on forage yield, N-uptake, and trace gas fluxes...
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These data are a subset of categories and items from county-level data for the conterminous United States covering the census reporting years beginning with the 1950 Census of Agriculture and ending with the 2012 Census of Agriculture. Historical (1950-1997) data were extracted from digital files obtained through the Intra-university Consortium on Political and Social Research (ICPSR). More current (1997-2012) data were extracted from the National Agriculture Statistical Service(NASS) Census Query Tool for the census years of 1997, 2002, 2007, and 2012. Please refer to the Supplemental Information element of the metadata for information on the Census of Agriculture, the Inter-university Consortium for Political...
The impacts of a severe sustained drought on Colorado River system water resources were investigated by simulating the physical and institutional constraints within the Colorado River Basin and testing the response of the system to different hydrologic scenarios. Simulations using Hydrosphere's Colorado River Model compared a 38-year severe sustained drought derived from 500 years of reconstructed streamfiows for the Colorado River basin with a 38-year streamfiow trace extracted from the recent historic record. The impacts of the severe drought on streamfiows, water allocation, storage, hydropower generation, and salinity were assessed. Estimated deliveries to consumptive uses in the Upper Basin states of Colorado,...
nthropogenic selenium contamination of aquatic ecosystems was first associated with cooling reservoirs of coal-fired power plants in the late 1970s, and later with drainage water from agricultural irrigation activities in the 1980s. In the 1990s, selenium contamination has been raised as a concern in the recovery of currently endangered fish in the Colorado River system. Widespread contamination from seleniferous drain waters from agriculture has been documented in the upper and lower Colorado River basins. Historically, irrigation started in the upper Colorado River basin in the late 1880s. In the 1930s, selenium concentrations in various drains, tributaries, and major rivers in the upper and lower Colorado River...
A selenium budget for Lake Powell, Utah-Arizona was determined based on selenium loads at the principal stream input sites to and the output site from the lake. Based on data collected during 1985-1994, 83 percent of the selenium entering Lake Powell is accounted for at the output site. The rest of the selenium may be incorporated by lake sediment or used by the biota. Considerably more selenium per unit area is produced from the Colorado River Basin above the Colorado River-Green River confluence than from the Green River Basin and the San Juan River Basin combined. The Gunnison River Basin and the Grand Valley in Colorado produce an estimated 31 and 30 percent of the selenium that reaches Lake Powell, respectively....
We evaluated the effects of institutional responses developed for coping with a severe sustained drought (SSD) in the Colorado River Basin on selected system variables using a SSD inflow hydrology derived from the drought which occurred in the Colorado River basin from 1579-1616. Institutional responses considered are reverse equalization, salinity reduction, minimum flow requirements, and temporary suspension of the delivery obligation of the Colorado River Compact. Selected system variables (reservoir contents, streamflows, consumptive uses, salinity, and power generation) from scenarios incorporating the drought-coping responses were compared to those from Baseline conditions using the current operating criteria....
Humans have exerted large-scale changes on the terrestrial biosphere, primarily through agriculture; however, the impacts of such changes on the hydrologic cycle are poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the conversion of natural rangeland ecosystems to agricultural ecosystems impacts the subsurface portion of the hydrologic cycle by changing groundwater recharge and flushing salts to underlying aquifers. The hypothesis was examined through point and areal studies investigating the effects of land use/land cover (LU/LC) changes on groundwater recharge and solute transport in the Amargosa Desert (AD) in Nevada and in the High Plains (HP) in Texas, US. Studies use the fact that...
The arid Southwest of the United States is confronted with increasing water demands and a limited resource. Past efforts to meet water demand have been directed toward development of scarce water resources. While development programs have been successful in stretching available supply, few feasible development options remain. Furthermore, heavy water utilization has affected water quality within drainage basins. It seems likely that water management will play a much more significant role in water resource allocation in the future. This paper will examine water development activity in the Southwest to date. Attention will be given to several of the problems that have arisen. The paper will then examine water management...
Maize (Zea mays) was a primary food crop for aboriginal societies of the arid American Southwest. Water used for maize production in these arid zones could have come from precipitation and runoff during the summer monsoon, from perennial streams and springs, or from stored soil water fed by snowmelt. The oxygen stable isotope ratio (?18O) of summer and winter precipitation on the Colorado Plateau naturally differ by more than 10? providing a powerful tool for distinguishing winter- from summer-derived water sources used in cultivation of maize. We investigated whether variation in ?18O of potential source waters is preserved in the ?18O of cellulose (?18Ocellulose) of maize cobs by growing four aboriginal and one...
ABSTRACT: A national and interregional programming model was used in projecting the impacts of alternative energy policies and prices on agricultural production, land use, and irrigation. The alternatives analyzed include (a) natural gas deregulation, (b) natural gas curtailment, (c) doubled energy prices, and (d) tripled energy prices. These alternatives are compared with a base alternative where prices and conditions are at normal levels. Restraints in the model control availability of water, land, nitrogen fertilizers, and energy. Water production functions were used to adjust water use to conform with projected energy prices and policies. Natural gas curtailment would have the largest effect on nitrogen use...
ABSTRACT: A national and interregional programming model was used in projecting the impacts of alternative energy policies and prices on agricultural production, land use, and irrigation. The alternatives analyzed include (a) natural gas deregulation, (b) natural gas curtailment, (c) doubled energy prices, and (d) tripled energy prices. These alternatives are compared with a base alternative where prices and conditions are at normal levels. Restraints in the model control availability of water, land, nitrogen fertilizers, and energy. Water production functions were used to adjust water use to conform with projected energy prices and policies. Natural gas curtailment would have the largest effect on nitrogen use...
Past land use changes have greatly impacted global water resources, with often opposing effects on water quantity and quality. Increases in rain-fed cropland (460%) and pastureland (560%) during the past 300 years from forest and grasslands decreased evapotranspiration and increased recharge (two orders of magnitude) and streamflow (one order of magnitude). However, increased water quantity degraded water quality by mobilization of salts, salinization caused by shallow water tables, and fertilizer leaching into underlying aquifers that discharge to streams. Since the 1950s, irrigated agriculture has expanded globally by 174%, accounting for ∼90% of global freshwater consumption. Irrigation based on surface water...
This integrated study examines the implications of changes in crop water demand and water availability for the reliability of irrigation, taking into account changes in competing municipal and industrial demands, and explores the effectiveness of adaptation options in maintaining reliability. It reports on methods of linking climate change scenarios with hydrologic, agricultural, and planning models to study water availability for agriculture under changing climate conditions, to estimate changes in ecosystem services, and to evaluate adaptation strategies for the water resources and agriculture sectors. The models are applied to major agricultural regions in Argentina, Brazil, China, Hungary, Romania, and the US,...
ABSTRACT: The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) restricts federal agencies from carrying out actions that jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered species. The U.S. Supreme Court has emphasized that the language of the ESA and its amendments permits few exceptions to the requirement to give endangered species the highest priority. This paper estimates economic costs associated with one measure for increasing instream flows to meet critical habitat requirements of the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow. Impacts are derived from an integrated regional model of the hydrology, economics, and institutions of the upper Rio Grande Basin in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. One proposal for providing...
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A national assessment (NA) evaluated the potential consequences of climate change and variability on the agriculture, water resources, as well as other economic and natural resource sectors in the United States. As part of this process, we used scenarios of the HadCM2 GCM and the EPIC agroecosystem model to evaluate climate-change impacts on crop yields and ecosystem processes. Baseline climate data were obtained from national records for 1961?1990. The scenario runs for 2025?2034 and 2090?2099 were extracted from a HadCM2 run. EPIC was run on 204 representative farms under current climate and two 10-year periods centered on 2030 and 2095, each at CO2 concentrations of 365 and 560 ppm. Crops were simulated under...
A study was conducted with endangered the razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus) to determine if environmental exposure to selenium in flooded bottomland sites affected survival, growth, and egg-hatching success. Adults were stocked at three sites adjacent to the Colorado River near Grand Junction, Colorado, in July 1996: hatchery ponds at Horsethief Canyon State Wildlife Area (referred to here as Horsethief; the reference site), a diked tertiary channel at Adobe Creek, and North Pond at Walter Walker State Wildlife Area (WWSWA). Fish were collected in April 1997 and spawned. After two spawnings adults from the three sites were held at Horsethief for an 86-day selenium depuration period. Selenium concentrations at...
    map background search result map search result map Effects of N management on N2O and CH4 fluxes and15N Integrated assessment of Hadley Centre (HadCM2) climate change projections on agricultural productivity and irrigation water supply in the conterminous United States I. Climate change scenarios and impacts on irrigation water supply simulated with the HUM Selected items from the Census of Agriculture at the county level for the conterminous United States, 1950-2012 National 1-kilometer rasters of selected Census of Agriculture statistics allocated to land use for the time period 1950 to 2012 Integrated assessment of Hadley Centre (HadCM2) climate change projections on agricultural productivity and irrigation water supply in the conterminous United States I. Climate change scenarios and impacts on irrigation water supply simulated with the HUM Selected items from the Census of Agriculture at the county level for the conterminous United States, 1950-2012 National 1-kilometer rasters of selected Census of Agriculture statistics allocated to land use for the time period 1950 to 2012