Seasonal Wetland/Subirrigation Research

Seasonal wetland/subirrigation research at the Piketon Research and Extension Center is currently evaluating crop yield response and nitrogen cycling.  Wetlands coupled with subirrigation systems are under study on 12 plots at the Ohio State's Piketon Research and Extension Center.

To create seasonal wetlands, the water table is raised during the non-growing season and lowered during the growing season to allow crop production.

Water Table Schedule

One of the benefits of the system is increased crop yield and less nitrate-nitrogen loss to surface waters.

An overview of the entire project will be posted later this year. At this moment, available for download is a preliminary summary of the hydrology and nitrate loading data:

Hydrologically Managed Seasonal Wetland Conditions Reduce Runoff, Drainage, and Nitrate Transport from a Corn/Soybean Agroecosystem using Water Table Management (by Y. Ganesan, L.C. Brown, N.R. Fausey, S.R. Workman, S.E. Subler and P. Bierman).