The two most important issues affecting the sustainability of agroecosystems in the Mississippi Delta region are declining groundwater levels in the Mississippi Delta Shallow Alluvial Aquifer and nutrient loads into the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. Current Federal programs, such as the Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative, provide support for farmers to implement new conservation practices such as on-farm water storage systems to reduce nutrient loading and improve water quality in the Basin and Gulf of Mexico. Water storage reservoirs offer farmers and landowners the practical benefits of providing supplemental surface water for irrigation while also capturing nutrient-rich tailwater from irrigated fields. Quantifying the long-term effects of these conservation practices on water-use, water quality, and agricultural production is very important in order to develop appropriate strategies for the adaptation of these practices.
A key component of the TMDL process is monitoring the water bodies for water quality. Remote sensing can provide a quick and cost-effective way to identify impaired water bodies and critical source areas, enabling researchers to assess the extent of impairment of specific segments of streams and rivers. In addition, remote sensing can be used as part of a large-scale water quality monitoring program and can provide information to environmental quality regulating agencies that can be used to develop management plans to reduce movement of pollutants into water bodies.
The use of climate and weather information is essential in addressing problems in agroecosystems and water resources. Applications include synoptic weather forecasting and web-based information delivery systems for managing crop disease risk, predicting the impacts of pests and diseases on crop yield, reducing vulnerability to drought, and development of strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate variability and climate change.
Increased crop production and expansion of irrigated acreage in the Southeastern USA have increased agricultural water use during the past three decades. Crop simulation models using downscaled regional climate data can be used to estimate future water demand for irrigation under different climate scenarios.
The sustainability of bioenergy produced from a particular source may be measured using net energy value (NEV), an established measure for the energy gain and sustainability of bioethanol. The sustainability of different feedstocks such as switchgrass and giant miscanthus, can be examined in terms of the net energy value and CO2 emissions.
Agricultural and forestry logging residues, are potential feedstocks for Combined Heat and Power (CHP) production. A project was conducted to assess the use of corn stover and forest logging residue as distributed feedstock sources for CHP facilities in Mississippi.
