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Title: Effects of Land Use Change for Crops on Water and Carbon Budgets in the Midwest USA

Journal Article · · Sustainability (Basel)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/su9020225· OSTI ID:1356175
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [4]
  1. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Earth System Science; Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Inst. of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth
  2. Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States). Dept. of Soil, Water, and Climate
  3. Univ. of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN (United States). Dept. of Bioproducts and Biosystems
  4. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Inst. of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth
+ Show Author Affiliations

By increasing the demand for food and bioenergy, the global landscape has altered dramatically in recent years. Land use and land cover change affects the environmental system in many ways through biophysical and biogeochemical mechanisms. Here, we evaluate the impacts of land use and land cover change driven by recent crop expansion and conversion on the water budget, carbon exchange, and carbon storage in the Midwest USA. A dynamic global vegetation model was used to simulate and examine the impacts of landscape change in a historical case based on crop distribution data from the United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Services. Furthermore, the simulation results indicate that recent crop expansion not only decreased soil carbon sequestration (60 Tg less of soil organic carbon) and net carbon flux into ecosystems (3.7 Tg • year-1 less of net biome productivity), but also lessened water consumption through evapotranspiration (1.04 x 1010 m3 • year-1 less) over 12 states in the Midwest. More water yield at the land surface does not necessarily make more water available for vegetation. Crop residue removal might also exacerbate the soil carbon loss.

Research Organization:
University of Minnesota's College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, St Paul, MN (United States); Univ. of California, Irvine, CA, (United States); University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
EE0004397
OSTI ID:
1356175
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1360808
Journal Information:
Sustainability (Basel), Vol. 9, Issue 2; ISSN 2071-1050
Publisher:
MDPICopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 1 work
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (2)

Long-term terrestrial carbon dynamics in the Midwestern United States during 1850-2015: Roles of land use and cover change and agricultural management journal February 2018
Impacts of Agricultural Expansion (1910s–2010s) on the Water Cycle in the Songneng Plain, Northeast China journal July 2018

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Related Subjects

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
land use and land cover change
agriculture
evapotranspiration
soil organic carbon
net biome productivity
Agro-IBIS