Growing farms and groundwater depletion in the Kansas High Plains
The average farm size has more than doubled within the United States over the last three decades, transforming the agricultural industry and rural farming communities. It is unclear, however, how this ubiquitous trend has affected and is affected by the environment, particularly groundwater resource...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IOP Publishing
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac1816 |
| _version_ | 1827870007841783808 |
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| author | Yufei Z Ao Nathan P Hendricks Landon T Marston |
| author_facet | Yufei Z Ao Nathan P Hendricks Landon T Marston |
| author_sort | Yufei Z Ao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The average farm size has more than doubled within the United States over the last three decades, transforming the agricultural industry and rural farming communities. It is unclear, however, how this ubiquitous trend has affected and is affected by the environment, particularly groundwater resources critical for food production. Here, we leverage a unique multi-decadal dataset of well-level groundwater withdrawals for crop irrigation over the Kansas High Plains Aquifer to determine the interactions between groundwater depletion and growing farms. Holding key technological, management, and environmental variables fixed, we show that doubling a farm’s irrigated cropland decreases groundwater extractions by 2%–5% depending on the initial farm size. However, a corresponding shift by larger farms to different irrigation technologies offsets this reduction in groundwater use, leading to a slight increase in overall groundwater use. We find groundwater depletion increases the likelihood farmland is sold to a larger farm, amplifying the cycle of groundwater depletion and the consolidation of farmland. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:52:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-45fa910273b14845b0ba5689d67db2d7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:52:41Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-45fa910273b14845b0ba5689d67db2d72023-08-09T15:05:23ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262021-01-0116808406510.1088/1748-9326/ac1816Growing farms and groundwater depletion in the Kansas High PlainsYufei Z Ao0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3602-2653Nathan P Hendricks1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7301-8314Landon T Marston2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9116-1691Department of Civil Engineering, Kansas State University , Manhattan, KS, United States of America; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech , Blacksburg, VA, United States of AmericaDepartment of Agricultural Economics, Kansas State University , Manhattan, KS, United States of AmericaDepartment of Civil Engineering, Kansas State University , Manhattan, KS, United States of America; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech , Blacksburg, VA, United States of AmericaThe average farm size has more than doubled within the United States over the last three decades, transforming the agricultural industry and rural farming communities. It is unclear, however, how this ubiquitous trend has affected and is affected by the environment, particularly groundwater resources critical for food production. Here, we leverage a unique multi-decadal dataset of well-level groundwater withdrawals for crop irrigation over the Kansas High Plains Aquifer to determine the interactions between groundwater depletion and growing farms. Holding key technological, management, and environmental variables fixed, we show that doubling a farm’s irrigated cropland decreases groundwater extractions by 2%–5% depending on the initial farm size. However, a corresponding shift by larger farms to different irrigation technologies offsets this reduction in groundwater use, leading to a slight increase in overall groundwater use. We find groundwater depletion increases the likelihood farmland is sold to a larger farm, amplifying the cycle of groundwater depletion and the consolidation of farmland.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac1816farm sizefarm structurerebound effectgroundwateraquiferirrigation efficiency |
| spellingShingle | Yufei Z Ao Nathan P Hendricks Landon T Marston Growing farms and groundwater depletion in the Kansas High Plains Environmental Research Letters farm size farm structure rebound effect groundwater aquifer irrigation efficiency |
| title | Growing farms and groundwater depletion in the Kansas High Plains |
| title_full | Growing farms and groundwater depletion in the Kansas High Plains |
| title_fullStr | Growing farms and groundwater depletion in the Kansas High Plains |
| title_full_unstemmed | Growing farms and groundwater depletion in the Kansas High Plains |
| title_short | Growing farms and groundwater depletion in the Kansas High Plains |
| title_sort | growing farms and groundwater depletion in the kansas high plains |
| topic | farm size farm structure rebound effect groundwater aquifer irrigation efficiency |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac1816 |
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