A total of 21 gauges across the mountainous leeward portion of the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, were used to compare rainfall interpolation methods and assess rainfall spatial variability over a 34-month monitoring period from 2005 to 2008. Traditional and geostatistical interpolation methods, including Thiessen polygon, inverse distance weighting (IDW), linear regression, ordinary kriging (OK), and simple kriging with varying local means (SKlm), were used to estimate wet and dry season rainfall. The linear regression and SKlm methods were used to incorporate two types of exhaustive secondary information: (1) elevation extracted from a digital elevation model (DEM), and (2) distance to a regional rainfall maximum. The Thiessen method produced the highest error, whereas OK produced the lowest error in all but one period. The OK method produced more accurate predictions than linear regression of rainfall against elevation when the correlation between rainfall and elevation is moderate (R<0.82). The SKlm method...

Small-scale vegetable and fruit crop producers in the USA use locally available commercial organic fertilizers and soil amendments recycled from municipal and agricultural wastes. Organic soil amendments provide crops with their nutrient needs and maintain soil health by modifying its physical, chemical, and biological properties. However, organic soil amendments might add unwanted elements such as toxic heavy metals or salts, which might inhibit crop growth and reduce yield. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate phytotoxicity of three commercial organic amendments, chicken manure, milorganite, and dairy manure, to collard greens using the seed germination bioassay and chemical analysis of the organic amendments. The seed germination bioassay was conducted by incubating collard greens seeds to germinate in 1:10 (w/v) organic amendment aqueous extracts. Results of this work identified phytotoxic effects of chicken manure and milorganite, but not dairy manure, to collard greens. Potentially phytotoxic chemicals such as copper, zinc, nickel, and salts were also higher in chicken manure and milorganite compared to dairy manure. In particular, nickel in chicken manure and milorganite aqueous extracts was 28-fold and 21-fold, respectively, higher than previously reported toxic levels to wheat seedlings. The results demonstrate the need for more research on phytotoxicity of commercial organic soil amendments to ensure their safe use in vegetable and fruit crop production systems.

Manure amendments affect several soil physical and hydrologic properties. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effect of (i) manure amendment rates (0, 168, 336, and 672 kg total N ha⁻¹), levels (one-time application, and two-time application), and types (chicken manure [CM], dairy manure [DM], and swine manure [SM]) on bulk density (ρ_b), total soil porosity (θ_t), and saturated hydraulic conductivity (K_sat) of a highly weathered tropical soil (Waialua gravely clay variant, isohyperthermic Pachic Haplustolls) and (ii) measuring instruments (tension infiltrometer [TI] and double-ring infiltrometers [DR]) on K_sat. For the two-time application level, all the plots received additional manure to compensate for the amounts decomposed during the first growing season. The field was tilled to the top 15-cm depth before and after manure application during the two growing seasons. Measurements of ρ_b and θ_t were conducted on undisturbed soil core samples collected from the top 10 cm of soil from a field cultivated with sweet corn (Zea mays L. subsp. mays) and irrigated with a drip irrigation system for two consecutive growing seasons. Saturated hydraulic conductivity was calculated from steady state infiltration rates measured with TI and DR. Results show that the increased manure amendment rates and levels significantly (P < 0.01) decreased ρ_b and consequently increased θ_t. The values of K_sat increased significantly (P < 0.01) with increase in CM and DM amendment rates and levels. For SM treatments, the values of K_sat decreased with increase in manure amendment rates and levels; these results concur with those reported in literature on liquid manures. Saturated hydraulic conductivity calculated from DR data was slightly greater than that from TI data for CM and DM treatments. Opposite results were found for SM treatments. However, a good agreement (R² = 0.90) was observed between K_sat values calculated from TI and DR data across treatments. We conclude that the CM and DM amendments increased θ_t and K_sat and may also temporarily improve soil aggregation; however, SM amendments result in decreased K_sat. Thus, it is not recommended that slurry SM be applied to the soils with low hydraulic conductivity because it could further inhibit water infiltration and increase surface runoff and soil erosion.

Single capacitance sensors are sensitive to soil property variability. The objectives of this study were to: (i) establish site-specific laboratory calibration equations of three single capacitance sensors (EC-20, EC-10, and ML2x) for tropical soils, and (ii) evaluate the accuracy and precision of these sensors. Intact soil cores and bulk samples, collected from the top 20 and 80 cm soil depths at five locations across the Upper Mākaha Valley watershed, were analyzed to determine their soil bulk density (ρ_b), total porosity (θ_t), particle size distribution, and electrical conductivity (EC). Laboratory calibration equations were established using soil packed columns at six water content levels (0–0.5 cm³ cm⁻³). Soil bulk density and θ_t significantly varied with sampling depths; whereas, soil clay content (CC) and EC varied with sampling locations. Variations of ρ_b and θ_t at the two depths significantly affected the EC-20 and ML2x laboratory calibration functions; however, there was no effect of these properties on calibration equation functions of EC-10. There was no significant effect of sampling locations on the laboratory calibration functions suggesting watershed-specific equations for EC-20 and ML2x for the two depths; a single watershed-specific equation was needed for EC-10 for both sampling depths. The laboratory calibration equations for all sensors were more accurate than the corresponding default equations. ML2x exhibited better precision than EC-10, followed by EC-20. We conclude that the laboratory calibration equations can mitigate the effects of varying soil properties and improve the sensors’ accuracy for water content measurements.

Understanding how potential climate change will affect availability of water resources for citrus production globally is needed. The main goal of this study is to investigate impacts of potential future climate change on citrus irrigation requirements (IRR) in major global citrus producing regions, e.g., Africa, Asia, Australia, Mediterranean, Americas. The Irrigation Management System (IManSys) model was used to calculate optimum IRR for the baseline period (1986–2005) and two future periods (2055s and 2090s) subject to combination of five and seven temperature and precipitation levels, respectively. Predicted IRR show significant spatio-temporal variations across study regions. Future annual IRR are predicted to globally decrease; however, future monthly IRR showed mixed results. Future evapotranspiration and IRR are projected to decrease by up to 12 and 37%, respectively, in response to increases in CO₂ concentration. Future citrus canopy interception and drainage below citrus rootzones are expected to slightly increase. Annual rainfall changes are negatively correlated with changes in IRR. These projections should help the citrus industry better understand potential climate change impacts on citrus IRR and major components of the water budget. Further studies are needed to investigate how these potential changes in CO₂ concentration, temperature, evapotranspiration, rainfall, and IRR will affect citrus yield and its economic impact on the citrus industry.

The main goal of this study was to evaluate four major remote sensing soil moisture (SM) products over the state of Texas. These remote sensing products are: (i) the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer—Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) (2002–September 2011); (ii) the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity system (SMOS, 2010–present); (iii) AMSR2 (2012–present); and (iv) the Soil Moisture Active Passive system (SMAP, 2015–present). The quality of the generated SM data is influenced by the accuracy and precision of the sensors and the retrieval algorithms used in processing raw data. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the quality of these satellite SM products using in situ measurements and/or by inter-comparing their data during overlapping periods. In this study, these two approaches were used where we compared each satellite SM product to in situ soil moisture measurements and we also conducted an inter-comparison of the four satellite SM products at 15 different locations in Texas over six major land cover types (cropland, shrub, grassland, forest, pasture and developed) and eight climate zones along with in situ SM data from 15 Mesonet, USCRN and USDA-NRCS Scan stations. Results show that SM data from SMAP had the best correlation coefficients range from 0.37 to 0.92 with in situ measurements among the four tested satellite surface SM products. On the other hand, SM data from SMOS, AMSR2 and AMSR-E had moderate to low correlation coefficients ranges with in situ data, respectively, from 0.24–0.78, 0.07–0.62 and 0.05–0.52. During the overlapping periods, average root mean square errors (RMSEs) of the correlations between in situ and each satellite data were 0.13 (AMSR-E) and 0.13 (SMOS) cm³/cm³ (2010–2011), 0.16 (AMSR2) and 0.14 (SMOS) cm³/cm³ (2012–2016) and 0.13, 0.16, 0.14 (SMAP, AMSR2, SMOS) cm³/cm³ (2015–2016), respectively. Despite the coarser spatial resolution of all four satellite products (25–36 km), their SM measurements are considered reasonable and can be effectively used for different applications, e.g., flood forecasting, and drought prediction; however, further evaluation of each satellite product is recommended prior to its use in practical applications.