Potatoes and Water
Mountain with snow cover. Photo: Unsplash
The Central Sands of Wisconsin is one of the premier agricultural regions of the US, especially for potato production. However, this production comes at a cost of groundwater use. We are working with growers on regional evapotranspiration and groundwater measurement and modeling.
Principal investigators
Ankur R Desai
Staff
Ammara Talib
Overview
Irrigation, potatoes, and Water Use
Project page
In 2018, with support from the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association Water Task Force, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources , and the UW Center for Climatic Research, our lab installed eddy covariance flux towers on a Heartland Farms center-pivot irrigated potato field (US-CS1) from June 2018-May 2019, the Tri-County School Forest pine stand Sept 2018-, and a 2nd potato field (US-CS3) from June 2019-. These are all located in Waushara County in the Central Sands of Wisconsin. Our research goal is quantification of the net water budget of different land covers of this globally important agricultural region to better constrain groundwater depletion, improve irrigation management, and understand plant water use under changing climates.
Project news & events
Project gallery
WPVGA and WI DNR
$129,000
2018-2021
featured Publications
Ebert, L.A., Talib, A., Zipper, S.C., Desai, A.R., Paw U, K.T., Chisholm, A.J., Prater, J., Nocco, M.A., 2022. How high to fly? Mapping evapotranspiration from remotely piloted aircrafts at different elevations, Remote Sensing, 14(7), 1660, doi:10.3390/rs14071660.
Talib, A., Desai, A.R., Huang, J., Griffis, T.J., Reed, D.E., Chen, J., 2021. Evaluation of prediction and forecasting models for evapotranspiration of agricultural lands in the Midwest U.S. J Hydrology, 600, 126579, doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2021.126579.
Talib, A. and Desai, A.R., 2019: Ways to Measure Evapotranspiration, Badger Common'Tater May 2019 issue, Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Grower's Association (link)
Talib, A. and Desai, A.R., 2018: Comparing Evapotranspiration on an irrigation potato field and pine plantation, Badger Common'Tater Dec 2018 issue, Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Grower's Association, (link)
