气候变化领域集成服务门户(CCPortal): Further adoption of conservation tillage can increase maize yields in the western US Corn Belt

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DOI	10.1088/1748-9326/ad3f32
	Further adoption of conservation tillage can increase maize yields in the western US Corn Belt
	Cambron, Trevor W.; Deines, Jillian M.; Lopez, Bruno; Patel, Rinkal; Liang, Sang-Zi; Lobell, David B.
发表日期	2024
ISSN	1748-9326
起始页码	19
结束页码	5
卷号	19 期号:5
英文摘要	Conservation tillage can reduce soil erosion, increase soil health, and decrease labor and fuel input costs. Despite these benefits, potential yield impacts remain an important concern for farmers considering adoption. Previous research suggests that conservation tillage is likely to have the largest yield benefits in more arid conditions, but a lack of field-level analyses across climatic, management and soil conditions limits confidence in such predictions. Satellite imagery provides the opportunity to monitor agricultural lands at sub-field resolution across large spatial scales and wide environmental gradients. Here we investigate the maize yield impacts of conservation tillage in the semi-arid western US Corn Belt, using sub-field resolution datasets on tillage practices and crop yields derived from satellite data spanning four states (Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, and North Dakota) between 2008 and 2020. On these datasets, we estimate heterogenous yield outcomes for several thousand maize fields across gradients in climate, soil quality and irrigation status by using a causal forests analysis, an adaptation of the random forests machine-learning algorithm for causal inference on observational data. We find that long-term adoption of conservation tillage increased rainfed maize yields by an average of 9.9% in the region. Impacts on irrigated yields were small and not statistically significant. These results, along with an analysis of variables related to greater than average yield benefits, indicate that improved water infiltration and retention are the primary reasons for conservation tillage benefits. Despite yield benefits, many fields estimated to see increased yields under long term low till have not adopted the practice. Therefore, we identify specific counties likely to benefit most from increased levels of adoption. Our results strengthen the understanding of the impacts of conservation agriculture on crop yields and help define environments and counties most likely to benefit from conservation tillage.
英文关键词	conservation agriculture; reduced tillage; US Corn Belt; causal forests; remote sensing; maize yield
语种	英语
WOS研究方向	Environmental Sciences & Ecology ; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
WOS类目	Environmental Sciences ; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
WOS记录号	WOS:001208554800001
来源期刊	ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://gcip.llas.ac.cn/handle/2XKMVOVA/303557
作者单位	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Stanford University; Stanford University; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Cambron, Trevor W.,Deines, Jillian M.,Lopez, Bruno,et al. Further adoption of conservation tillage can increase maize yields in the western US Corn Belt[J],2024,19(5).
APA	Cambron, Trevor W.,Deines, Jillian M.,Lopez, Bruno,Patel, Rinkal,Liang, Sang-Zi,&Lobell, David B..(2024).Further adoption of conservation tillage can increase maize yields in the western US Corn Belt.ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS,19(5).
MLA	Cambron, Trevor W.,et al."Further adoption of conservation tillage can increase maize yields in the western US Corn Belt".ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS 19.5(2024).