Ma et al. (2025) Soil oxygen dynamics: a key mediator of tile drainage impacts on coupled hydrological, biogeochemical, and crop systems

Identification

• Journal: Hydrology and earth system sciences
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-18
• Authors: Zewei Ma, Kaiyu Guan, Bin Peng, Wang Zhou, R. F. Grant, Jinyun Tang, Murugesu Sivapalan, Ming Pan, Li Li, Zhenong Jin
• DOI: 10.5194/hess-29-6393-2025

Research Groups

• Agroecosystem Sustainability Center, Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
• Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
• DOE Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, Urbana, IL, USA
• National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
• Department of Crop Sciences, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
• School of Agriculture, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, China
• Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada
• Climate Sciences Department, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
• Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
• Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
• Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
• Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
• Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Saint Paul, MN, USA

Short Summary

This study used the ecosys model to quantify the integrated impacts of tile drainage on hydrology, biogeochemistry, and crop growth, revealing that soil oxygen dynamics mediate these interactions. It found that tile drainage enhances soil oxygenation, alleviating crop oxygen stress and promoting root growth, which increases crop yield by approximately 6% and improves resilience to climate change.

Objective

• To quantify how tile drainage alters agroecosystem hydrology, biogeochemistry, and crop growth.
• To understand the interrelationships between the impacts of tile drainage on hydrology, biogeochemistry, and crop growth.
• To investigate how seasonal precipitation patterns influence tile drainage and agricultural production.
• Hypothesis: Tile drainage positively influences crop growth by altering in-field hydrology and soil biogeochemistry, with soil oxygen acting as the critical mediator linking these three components.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Field-scale, specifically corn–soybean rotation fields at an experimental site in Washington County, Iowa, USA. The model was configured in a 1D setting.
• Temporal Scale: 11-year analysis period (2007–2017) following a 17-year initialization period (1990–2006). Model simulations were performed at an hourly time step.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: ecosys model (a process-based agroecosystem model uniquely incorporating first-principle soil oxygen dynamics and crop oxygen uptake mechanisms).
• Data sources:
  • Field experiment data (2007–2017) from Iowa State University Southeast Research and Demonstration Farm, Washington County, IA: tile flow, corn and soybean yield, daily water table depth.
  • Meteorological data: North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS-2) for temperature, solar radiation, humidity, and wind speed; on-site daily precipitation (2008–2017).
  • Soil information: Gridded Soil Survey Geographic Database (gSSURGO).
  • Management practices: Documented tillage and fertilizer application.

Main Results

• Tile drainage significantly increased annual mean subsurface discharge from 216 mm to 276 mm and subsurface recharge from 34 mm to 104 mm, with limited impact on annual evapotranspiration (659 mm vs 655 mm) and surface runoff (48 mm vs 46 mm).
• Annual mean total inorganic nitrogen (IN) loss increased by 28.5% under tile drainage (from 1.89 g N m⁻² to 2.72 g N m⁻²), primarily due to increased subsurface IN loss (from 1.89 g N m⁻² to 2.45 g N m⁻²).
• Tile drainage enhanced soil oxygen concentration, promoting soil microbe activity (increased heterotrophic respiration) and accelerating soil organic nitrogen mineralization (net mineralization increased by 0.36 g N m⁻²).
• Improved aerobic conditions alleviated crop oxygen stress during wet springs, fostering robust root development (annual mean root respiration increased from 182 g C m⁻² to 193 g C m⁻²).
• The developed root systems under tile drainage mitigated water stress during dry summers, contributing to an overall increase in crop yield by approximately 6% (corn by 6.97%, soybean by 5.37% in simulation).
• The yield benefit of tile drainage became more pronounced with increasing precipitation, indicating enhanced crop resilience to precipitation variability.

Contributions

• Provides a novel, mechanistic understanding of tile drainage impacts on coupled hydrological, biogeochemical, and crop systems by explicitly simulating soil oxygen dynamics as a key mediator.
• Demonstrates how tile drainage alleviates crop oxygen stress during wet periods and enhances root development, subsequently improving crop resilience to summer droughts.
• Quantifies the integrated effects of tile drainage on water fluxes, nitrogen cycling, and crop productivity, highlighting its potential as an adaptation strategy for climate change in the US Midwest.
• Emphasizes the critical need for comprehensive, multi-variable observational data to further validate and refine process-based agroecosystem models.

Funding

• NSF CAREER Award (award no. 1847334)
• NSF Environmental Sustainability Program
• USDA NIFA program (grant no. 2023-67013-39046)
• Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) Seeding Solutions Award (grant no. CA20-SS-0000000137)
• DOE Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research Program under award no. DE-SC0018420)
• Director, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, of the US Department of Energy (contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231) as part of the Reducing Uncertainties in Biogeochemical Interactions through Synthesis and Computation (RUBISCO) Scientific Focus Area.

Citation

@article{Ma2025Soil,
  author = {Ma, Zewei and Guan, Kaiyu and Peng, Bin and Zhou, Wang and Grant, R. F. and Tang, Jinyun and Sivapalan, Murugesu and Pan, Ming and Li, Li and Jin, Zhenong},
  title = {Soil oxygen dynamics: a key mediator of tile drainage impacts on coupled hydrological, biogeochemical, and crop systems},
  journal = {Hydrology and earth system sciences},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.5194/hess-29-6393-2025},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-6393-2025}
}