Busy Bee's in the SPRING!

It's been a busy spring and everything is ready to go!

Thus far our major field activities have included:

1) The setup and installation of our Eddy Covariance system in a NEW location at the research site because the farmer is now irrigating the center of the field and using control drainage on the southern portion.

 

2)The setup of all three wireless weather stations located in the undrained (UD), free drained (FD), and subirrigated (SI) fields.

This is a picture of the SI wireless weather station with Eddy Covariance in the background.  On this weather station there is a photosynthetically active radiation, rain, soil moisture/temperature, and relative humidity/temperature sensor.  The other two wireless weather stations in the UD and FD fields have similar sensors with the addition of wind sensors which measure wind gust, direction, and speed. In this picture the relative humidity and temperature sensor is being lowered to 1.0-1.5m above the crop canopy. 

3)The lowering and raising of the 24 piezometers (screened wells) located through out the research site due to the farmer tilling and planting his field.  The wells must be lowered a foot or more beneath the ground surface so that the farmer does not damage the equipment while he tills and plants the field.  Then once the field is tilled and planted we can raise the piezometers and launch the HOBO water level transducers, placed inside the wells, which help us monitor the ground water level throughout the field.

 

 

4)Installation of turbidity and water level sensors at two locations in the county drainage ditch.  One set is located kitty corner of the FD field and the other is located at the north western point of the SI and CD field.  By doing this we are able to monitor water quality in the ditch before and soon after subsurface drainage has entered.

Sadly, however, due to a fair amount of rain over the past couple of weeks the water level in the ditch raised above the sensors and either destroyed or damaged most of the sensors and data loggers.  They are in the process of being repaired or replaced, and are expected to be back up and running within the next week or so.


5)Installation of a Stingray Ultra Sonic Flow Meter, which monitors water level, velocity, and temperature of flow in a pipe or channel.  This sensor is located in the Free Drainage (FD) tile outlet, and will allow us to quantify the volume and timing of drainage events from the FD field.

 

 

6)Installation of weirs and water level sensors at drainage outlets for the CD, SI, and FD fields.  Again, we hope to estimate the surface runoff from these fields by making use of v-notch weirs and HOBO transducers, which monitor water level every 10 minutes.

 

This has been an exciting and BUSY spring, but now it's time to get to the fun part and put our sensors/equipment to work as the growing season begins!



Hey!

So it's time to start getting back out into the field! 

In March we

• Continued to collect and process data from our wireless weather stations and Eddy Covariance systems. 

• Visited our "free drained" field to re-launch/re-start a malfunctioning weather station

• Visited each of our 24 wells (located in our undrained, control drained, and subirrigated field plots) to ensure that our HOBO water level loggers were working and the wells were functional.

Below is the link to a video which briefly summarizes our Eddy Covariance and wireless weather stations along with providing a look at the research site during the winter months.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQeVz0xjVWc

So far in the New Year we have...

• Switched our cellular transmitters for satellite transmitters on our weather stations.  These transmitters allow us to view our data in "real time". By this we mean that we can look at the data our weather stations are collecting (soil temperature, soil moisture, wind speed/direction, relative humidity, air temperature, photosynthetic active radiation, etc.) every couple hours through the DataGarrison site online.

• Looked at wind sensor problems (wind gust/speed) caused by the freezing rain/snow and looked at different options to resolve this problem (i.e. calling Onset technical support, asking around the department, etc.)

• Gave a representative (Alisha) from the college of agriculture, here at NDSU, a tour of our North Moorhead research site

• Continually processed wireless weather station data to check that sensors are working correctly

Project Summary

ABSTRACT:

Following a wet weather pattern since 1993 in the Red River Valley (RRV), located in eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota, excess moisture in the farmland has become the most limiting factor for crop production.  Subsurface drainage (SSD), a new technology for the RRV, has become a necessary and effective way to remove water, lower the water table and reduce soil salinity.  Due to concerns on water quality, especially nitrate losses from the SSD flow, controlled drainage (CD) can be used to reduce the total amount of drainage water and nitrate moving out of the field.  Subirrigation (SI), which adds water to the field during high water demand period, can increase crop yield.  In addition, the SI will use the ditch water next to the field as the waster source so that the phosphorous and sediment load in the surface water can be decreased through the field filtration process.  The dual CD and SI system is new to the RRV region, the design used in this project is suitable for the flat topography of the RRV region, and the day to day water management protocol is innovative and has not been studied before.  Field experiment with four treatments, undrained (UD), free drainage, CD, and CD+SI, will be conducted at Clay County, MN.  Water balance components, such as rainfall, irrigation, evapotranspiration, drainage, surface runoff, and soil moisture changes will be measured.  Water quality will be monitored at upper and downstream of the ditch.  Sugar beet, corn, and soybean yields will also be estimated for each growing season.  During the project duration, field days, workshops, and evaluation will be conducted annually to demonstrate the project progress.  It is expected that more people will be able to use CD and SI following the success of this project. 


Below is an aeriel view of the research site located in Clay County, MN.