Monitoring aqueous rootzone conditions under irrigated cotton and grains

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:17:55 +0000

Felicity Roos, at the University of Sydney, will be doing a short trial of the ‘SoluSampler’. The SoluSampler is a water sampler that collects samples at various root depths in order to monitor rootzone salinity. This tool has been used in citrus and grape crops and Felicity will be testing it for suitability for monitoring nutrient leaching and salinity levels under irrigated cotton and grains.

IDs and People

Program:

National Program for Sustainable Irrigation

Research Type:

Research Project

Host Organisation:

University of Sydney

Researchers:

Felicity Roos

Subjects

Subjects:

Cotton and Fibre Crops

Irrigation

Keywords:

Monitoring

rootzone

irrigated

Cotton

Grains

aqueous

conditions

Current Activities

Status:

Complete

Background

Aims:

1. Test the suitability of SoluSampler as an in-situ sampler of rootzone conditions
2. Monitor salinity and nutrient content of sub-surface drainage under two cotton irrigation systems
3. Provide an undergraduate student field and laboratory research experience as well as greater exposure to the irrigation industry

Irrigation Decision Making Insight

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:37:56 +0000

Feedback from the 2000 release of Irrigation Insights 1 : Soil Water Monitoring identified the following gap – “now that we have the data, how do we use it to improve our irrigation decision ?” Further to this, it has been recognised that the modern farming system relies on an ever increasing number of different data streams.

IDs and People

Program:

National Program for Sustainable Irrigation

Research Type:

Research Project

Legacy (KMS) Project ID:

USQ10

Host Organisation:

CSIRO Land and water

Researchers:

Richard Stirzaker

Subjects

Subjects:

Data and Information

Innovation

Primary Industries

Irrigation

Keywords:

Monitoring

Project Information

Outcomes:

Better informed irrigation decisions through better informed researchers, extension staff, consultants and farmers.

The project will effectively remove a barrier in understanding how the data collected on-farm can be made to improve the irrigation decision and providing explanation of this to farmers/extension personnel and consultants.

Current Activities

Status:

Complete

Background

Project Background:

Primary producers must maintain income in an era of increasing pressure from product quality, water reform and environmental sustainability areas. Collecting more information about their systems and using it better has been one of the major recommendations for facing these stresses. However, no guide to help with this exists.

Aims:

Better informed irrigation decisions through publication that :

Identify different data streams involved in the irrigation farmers decision
For each stream denote the minimum and optimum data collection requirements and interpretation guide for those streams for which limited current resources exist eg. soil moisture monitoring
Demonstrate how different information can be integrated to better inform the irrigation decision within whole farm decision making

All in Monitoring

Monitoring aqueous rootzone conditions under irrigated cotton and grains

Irrigation Decision Making Insight