Impacts of tile drainage on hydrology, soil biogeochemistry, and crop yield in the U.S. Midwestern agroecosystems

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Abstract. Tile drainage removes excess water and is an essential, widely adopted management practice to enhance crop productivity in the U.S. Midwest. Tile drainage has been shown to significantly change hydrological and biogeochemical cycles by lowering the water table and reducing the residence time of soil water, although such impacts and their connections are poorly understood and highly uncertain. Understanding these impacts is essential, particularly so because tile drainage has been highlighted as an adaptation under projected wetter springs and drier summers in the changing climate in the U.S. Midwest. We used the ecosys model, uniquely incorporating soil oxygen dynamics and crop oxygen uptake, to quantify the impacts of tile drainage on hydrological and biogeochemical cycles and crop growth at corn-soybean rotation fields. Tiles are represented as a water sink in the soil, characterized by tile depth and spacing in ecosys. Water flow from saturated soil layers to tiles is governed by the lateral hydraulic gradient defined by the water table depth in the field, tile depth, and tile spacing. The model was validated with data from a multi-treatment, multi-year experiment in Washington, IA. The relative root mean square error (rRMSE) for corn and soybean yield in validation is 5.66 % and 12.57 %, respectively. The Pearson coefficient (r) of the monthly tile flow during the growing season is 0.78. Model results show that tile drainage reduces soil water content and enhances soil oxygenation. It additionally increases subsurface discharge and elevates inorganic nitrogen leaching, with seasonal variations influenced by climate and crop phenology. The improved aerobic condition alleviated crop oxygen stress during wet springs, thereby promoting crop root growth during the early growth stage. The development of greater root density, in turn, mitigated water stress during dry summers, leading to an overall increase in crop yield by ~6 %. These functions indicate the potential of tile drainage in bolstering crop resilience to climate change, and the use of this modeling tool for large-scale assessments of tile drainage. The model reveals the inherent connections of tile drainage’s impacts on hydrology, soil biogeochemistry, and plant growth.

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