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Bulletin 4369 - Ord River Irrigation Area - Kununurra Western Australia, Agriculture Western Australia

Bulletins 4000 -

The Ord River Irrigation Area (ORIA) in the Kimberley Province of Western Australia is the product of a bold and imaginative plan to develop part of the nation's tropical north for intensive agriculture by harnessing the waters of the Ord River. The principal features of the scheme are:

* A major storage reservoir formed by a dam constructed where the Ord River enters the Carr-Boyd Ranges, 160 kilometres south-east of Wyndham.

* A diversion dam, 50 kilometres further downstream, to raise the river level and divert water to be released from the major storage reservoir onto the irrigable lands.

* …

Close-Range And Satellite Remote Sensing Of Algal Biomass In The Iowa Great Lakes, Eric A. Wilson

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The utility of both close-range and satellite remote sensing for assessing inland water quality was examined in the Iowa Great Lakes. The water quality of this system is of considerable interest because of its status as an environmental, recreational, and therefore, economic resource. The broad range of optical conditions present in the lakes and the wealth of literature on the system make it an ideal environment for water quality remote sensing research. The goal of this research was to survey the water quality of the Iowa Great Lakes via remote sensing, evaluate different predictive algorithms, and map the distribution of …

Crop Updates 1999 - Cereals, Len W. Broadbridge, Doug Abrecht, D. Bakker, Greg Hamilton, Cliff Spann, Doug Rowe, Peter Fisher, Jennifer Bignell, Matthew Braimbridge, Bill Bowden, Ross Brennan, Reg Lunt, Senthold Asseng, Cherie Rowles, Simon Bedbrook, Chris Gazey, Mike Bolland, Garren Knell, Lyn Abbott, Zed Rengel, Wayne Pluske, Erin Cahill, Bill Crabtree, Matthew Evans, Tim Nielsen, Jat Bhathal, Rob Loughman, D. Rasmussen, Roger A C Jones, Sean Kelly, Ian Riley, Sharyn Tayor, Vivien Vanstone, Dominie Wright, Debbie Thackray, Simon Mckirdy, George Yan, Robin Wilson, Iain Barclay, Robin Mclean, Dean A. Diepeveen, Bill Lambe, Wal Anderson, Brenda Shackley, Mechelle Owen, Peter Burgess, Ben Curtis, Mohammed A. Hamza, Jamie Henderson, Frank Boetel, Alfredo Impiglia, Frances Hoyle, Darshan Sharma, Pierre Fievez, Blakely Paynter, Glenn Macdonald, Kevin Young, Andrew Blake, Keith Devenish, P J. Dolling, Roy Latta, Lisa-Jane Blacklow, Chris Matthews, Angelo Loi, Brad Nutt, Rochelle Mcrobb, David Webb, Andrew Mcrobb, Clinton K. Revell, James Ridsdill-Smith, Celia Pavri, David Tennant, Darryl Mclements, Ross Thompson, Mike Ewing, Tim Woodburn, Paul Yeoh, James Fisher, Art Diggle, Mark Whitten, Andrew Rate, Paul Carlile, Ed Blanchard, Bevan Buirchell, Lorraine Osborne, Tress Walmsley, Terry Piper, Cameron Weeks, Michael Dodd, Amanda Falconer, Caroline Peek, Glenn Adam, Camray Gethin, Richard Guinness, Daniel Fels, Andrew Rintoul, Mal Lamond, Roger Tapp, Craig White

Crop Updates

This article covers sixty papers

FOREWORD

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PLENARY PAPERS

1. Western Australia’s climate: trends and opportunities, Len W. Broadbridge, Director, Bureau of Meterorology

2. Managing seasonal variations in agriculture, Dr Doug Abrecht, Director, Dryland Research Institute, Merredin

CROP ESTABLISHMENT

3. Soil management to prevent waterlogging on duplex soils in the Great Southern, D. Bakker, Greg Hamilton, Cliff Spann and Doug Rowe, Agriculture Western Australia

4. The influence of no-till and press wheels on crop production for heavy soils, Peter Fisher, Jennifer Bignell, Matthew Braimbridge, Greg Hamilton, Agriculture

Western Australia

NUTRITION

5. Fertiliser nitrogen, applied late, needs …

Classification Of Explosives Transformation Products In Plant Tissue, Steven L. Larson, Robert P. Jones, Lynn Escalon, Don Parker

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

Explosives contamination in surface or groundwater used for the irrigation of food crops and phytoremediation of explosives-contaminated soil or water using plant-assisted biodegradation have brought about concerns as to the fate of explosives in plants. Liquid scintillation counting, high-performance liquid chromatography, and gel permeation chromatography were utilized to characterize explosives (hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine and trinitrotoluene) and their metabolites in plant tissues obtained from three separate studies. Analyzing tissues of yellow nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus), corn (Zea mays), lettuce (Lacuta sativa), tomato (Lyopersicum esculentum), radish (Raphanus sativus), and parrot feather (Myriophyllum aquaticum) …

Monitoring The 1996 Drought Using The Standardized Precipitation Index, Michael J. Hayes, Mark D. Svoboda, Donald A. Wilhite, Olga V. Vanyarkho

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Droughts are difficult to detect and monitor. Drought indices, most commonly the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), have been used with limited success as operational drought monitoring tools and triggers for policy responses. Recently, a new index, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), was developed to improve drought detection and monitoring capabilities. The SPI has several characteristics that are an improvement over previous indices, including its simplicity and temporal flexibility, that allow its application for water resources on all timescales. In this article, the 1996 drought in the southern plains and southwestern United States is examined using the SPI. A series …

Changes In Soil Chemistry Beneath Exposed Poultry House Pads And Manure Storage Areas, Stanley L. Chapman, William R. Teague

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Concerns about nitrates in private drinking water supplies in the older poultry growing areas of Arkansas prompted soil and water testing in the early 1990's. Exposed poultry house pads were recognized as a potential source of nitrates in the groundwater. Soils beneath nine different poultry house pads in five counties were sampled in 10-30 cm increments to bedrock or to a maximum sampling depth of 90 cm. The nine sites had been exposed to natural weathering conditions ranging from never to for more than 20 years. Routine soil tests were conducted by the University of Arkansas Soil Testing Lab at …

Salinity And Hydrology Of The Fence Road Catchment : A Focus Catchment Of The Blackwood Basin, Ben Whitfield

Resource management technical reports

It is the clearing of native vegetation and replacement with lower water-use annual crops and pastures that is responsible for the developing salinity problem. Traditional farming practices have led to increased recharge to the groundwater systems resulting in increased storage and/or greater areas or rates of discharge. Groundwater monitoring has revealed variable rates of rise throughout the Fence Road catchment, from static to 0.6 metres per year, in a period of average to below average rainfall.

Comparison Of An Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (Elisa) To Gas Chromatography (Gc) - Measurement Of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (Pcbs) In Selected Us Fish Extracts, James L. Zajicek, Donald E. Tillitt, Ted R. Schwartz, Christopher J. Schmitt, Robert O. Harrison

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The analysis of PCBs in fish tissues by immunoassay methods was evaluated using fish collected from a US monitoring program, the National Contaminant Biomonitoring Program of the US Department of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service. Selected composite whole fish samples, which represented widely varying concentrations and sources of PCBs, were extracted and subjected to congener PCB analysis by gas chromatography (GC) and total PCB analysis using an ELISA (ePCBs) calibrated against technical Aroclor 1248. PCB congener patterns in these fishes were different from the patterns found in commercial Aroclors or their combinations as demonstrated by principal component analysis of normalized …

Limitation Of Algal Growth By Iron Deficiency In The Australian Subantarctic Region, Peter N. Sedwick, Giacomo R. Ditullio, David A. Hutchins, Philip W. Boyd, F. Brian Griffiths, A. Clive Crossley, Thomas W. Trull, Bernard Queguiner

OES Faculty Publications

In March 1998 we measured iron in the upper water column and conducted iron- and nutrient-enrichment bottle-incubation experiments in the open-ocean Subantarctic region southwest of Tasmania, Australia. In the Subtropical Convergence Zone (∼42°S, 142°E), silicic acid concentrations were low (< 1.5μM) in the upper water column, whereas pronounced vertical gradients in dissolved iron concentration (0.12-0.84 nM) were observed., presumably reflecting the interleaving of Subtropical and Subantarctic waters, and mineral aerosol input. Results of a bottle-incubation experiment performed at this location indicate that phytoplankton growth rates were limited by iron deficiency within the iron-poor layer of the euphotic zone. In the Subantarctic water mass (∼46.8°S, 142°E), low concentrations of dissolved iron (0.05-0.11nM) and silicic acid (< 1μM) were measured throughout the upper water column, and our experimental results indicate that algal growth was limited by iron deficiency. These observations suggest that availability of dissolved iron is a primary factor limiting phytoplankton growth over much of the Subantarctic Southern Ocean in the late summer and autumn.

200,000 Years Of Climate Change Recorded In Eolian Sediments Of The High Plains Of Eastern Colorado And Western Nebraska, Daniel R. Muhs, James Swinehart, David Loope, John N. Aleinikoff, Josh Been

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Loess and eolian sand cover vast areas of the western Great Plains of Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado (Fig. 1). In recent studies of Quaternary climate change, there has been a renewed interest in loess and eolian sand. Much of the attention now given to loess stems from new studies of long loess sequences that contain detailed records of Quaternary glacial-interglacial cycles, thought to be a terrestrial equivalent to the foraminiferal oxygen isotope record in deep-sea sediments (Fig. 2). Loess is also a direct record of atmospheric circulation, and identification of loess paleowinds in the geologic record can test atmospheric general …

Physical Control Of Biological Processes In The Central Equatorial Pacific: A Data Assimilative Modeling Study, Marjorie Anne Macwhorter Friedrichs

OES Theses and Dissertations

A five-component data assimilative ecosystem model is developed in order to investigate the effects of physical processes encompassing a wide range of space and time scales, on the lower trophic levels of the highly dynamic central equatorial Pacific (140°W). Many of the biological processes included in the ecosystem model respond to environmental fluctuations with time scales between one and ten days, which are not typically resolved by basin to global scale circulation models. Therefore, the ecosystem model is forced using daily observations from the TAO mooring array. Model simulations successfully reproduce data collected both during and after the 1991–92 El …

Observations On Groundwater Recharge In The Westdale Catchment, M F. Lewis, C E. Mcconnell

Resource management technical reports

A study of the role of groundwater carriers and barriers in controlling salinity was carried out in the Westdale Catchment by Lewis and McConnell (in preparation). Although that study was primarily concerned with groundwater flow and discharge processes, the data collected also provided rudimentary information on the timing of groundwater recharge events and their distribution across the landscape.

Chemical Signals From Submarine Fluid Advection Onto The Continental Shelf, W. S. Moore, Timothy J. Shaw

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Vulnerability And Use Of Ground And Surface Waters In The Southern Mississippi Valley Region, H. Don Scott

Arkansas Water Resources Center Technical Reports

There is a concern in the Southern Mississippi River Valley of the United States over non-point source pollution of ground and surface waters resulting from activities associated with agricultural production. This agriculturally intensive region consists of two major land resource areas (MLRAs): Southern Mississippi Valley Silty Uplands (MLRA 134) and the Southern Mississippi Valley Alluvium (MLRA 131). Both MLRAs have level to undulating and rolling topography, relatively fertile soils and a climate particularly conducive for row crop production.

Agricultural Water Management In The Missippi Delta Region Of Arkansas, H. Don Scott, James A. Ferguson, Linda Hanson, Todd Fugitt, Earl Smith

AAES Research Reports and Research Bulletins

Agriculture is the largest use of soil and water resources in eastern Arkansas. This bulletin summarized the recent historical use of soil and water by agriculture and the impact of irrigation on yields of rice, soybeans and cotton. The experiments conducted in the field to quantitatively schedule irrigations of crops are summarized. The results show the close relationship between the irrigation of crops and the extraction of water from the Alluvial Aquifer. The implications of this relationaship for the future are discussed.

How To Reduce Drought Risk, Cody Knutson, Mike Hayes, Tom Phillips

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

This guide describes a practical step-by-step process for identifying actions that can be taken to reduce potential drought-related impacts before a drought occurs. Step 1 begins with making sure that the right people are brought together and supplied with adequate data to make informed and equitable decisions during the process. Steps 2 and 3 narrow the focus of the study by identifying high priority drought-related impacts that are relevant to the user’s location or activity. Step 4 demonstrates that in order to reduce the potential for the identified impacts to occur in the future, it is necessary to understand the …

Hydrology Of Two Interdunal Valleys In The Nebraska Sand Hills, Steve Drda

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Two neighboring interdunal valleys are compared within a study area of about 15 square miles in the Nebraska Sand Hills. One is a subirrigated wet meadow drained by a manmade ditch. The other is topographically lower, but dry at the surface. The goal of this study is to identify the factors responsible for the hydrologic regime present in each valley, and to discern the reasons for the differences between the two valleys. Water levels in 39 piezometers positioned at different locations across both valleys, and at different depths were monitored for two-and-a-half years to determine groundwater flow paths, gradients, and …

Inventory Of Sub-Catchments Within The Wilson Inlet Catchment, B Radys

Resource management technical reports

The release of the "Salinity Action Plan for Western Australia' in December 996 highlighted the need for catchment scale planning and coordinated actions to reverse salinity trends.

A separate report has been produced for each major catchment area. Each report contains and inventory of all sub-catchments. with information on area, degradation risks and group activities with each catchment.

Chapter 2 Climate, Donald A. Wilhite, Kenneth G. Hubbard

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

The broad climatic patterns of the Sand Hills region are also characteristic of the central Great Plains environment. The spatial and temporal patterns of these climatic variables have a significant effect on the natural resources of the region.

Inventory Of Sub-Catchments Within The Oyster Harbour Catchment, B Radys

Resource management technical reports

The release of the "Salinity Action Plan for Western Australia' in December 996 highlighted the need for catchment scale planning and coordinated actions to reverse salinity trends.

A separate report has been produced for each major catchment area. Each report contains and inventory of all sub-catchments, with information on area, degradation risks and group activities with each catchment.

An Evaluation Of Methods For Identifying And Interpreting Buried Soils In Late Quaternary Loess In Alaska, Daniel R. Muhs, Thomas A. Ager, Josh M. Been, Joseph G. Rosenbaum, Richard L. Reynolds

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The presence of buried soils in Alaskan loess is controversial, and therefore criteria for identifying buried soils in these deposits need to be evaluated. In this paper, morphologic and chemical criteria for identifying buried soils are evaluated by studying modern soils developed mostly in Holocene loess under tundra, boreal forest, and transitional coastal-boreal forest vegetation in different parts of Alaska. Data from modern Alaskan soils that developed under vegetation similar to that of the present indicate that soil morphology, organic-matter concentrations, and P concentrations can be useful diagnostic tools for identifying buried soils. Soil morphologic criteria, particularly horizon colors and …

Identification Of Past Climate Variability Of The Eastern Pacific Ocean Using Both D13c And D18o Records In Corals From Clipperton Atoll (1994-1906), Lei Ren

Geology Theses and Dissertations

The ENSO (El Nino and the Southern Oscillation) is a fundamental ocean-atmosphere phenomenon that dominates interannual global climate variability. Reconstructing past ENSO events is therefore important for documenting and understanding the past behavior of the global climate system and enabling us to predict future climate change. However, the present understanding of ENSO events has been mainly based on the instrumental record of Pacific climate which provides detailed data only for the past few decades. Recent studies have shown that the stable isotope record in coral skeletons can be used as a valuable indicator of paleoclimatic changes in tropical regions, and …

Continuous Lake-Sediment Records Of Glaciation In The Sierra Nevada Between 52,600 And 12,500 14c Yr B.P., Larry Benson, Howard M. May, Ronald C. Antweiler, Terry I. Brinton, Michaele Kashgarian, Joseph P. Smoot, Steve P. Lund

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The chemistry of the carbonate-free clay-size fraction of Owens Lake sediments supports the use of total organic carbon and magnetic susceptibility as indicators of stadial-interstadial oscillations, Owens Lake records of total organic carbon, magnetic susceptibility, and chemical composition of the carbonate-free, clay-size fraction indicate that Tioga glaciation began ~24,500 and ended by ~13,600 ¹⁴C yr B.P. Many of the components of glacial rock flour (e.g., TiO₂ , MnO, BaO) found in Owens Lake sediments achieved maximum values during the Tioga glaciation when valley glaciers reached their greatest extent. Total organic carbon and Si02 (amorphous) concentrations reached minimum values …

Early Life History Stages Of Gulf Sturgeon In The Suwannee River, Florida, Kenneth J. Sulak, James P. Clugston

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Egg sampling confirmed that Suwannee River Gulf sturgeon Acipenser ozyrinchus desotoi, a subspecies of Atlantic sturgeon A. o. oxyrinchus use the same spawning site at river kilometer (rkm) 215 from the mouth of the river each year. Forty-nine eggs were recorded in 1995, and 368 were recorded in 1996. Spawning began 4-7 d after the March new moon in both years and lasted 10-11 d; in 1996, a second 10-d spawning round began on the April new moon. Developmental synchrony among eggs recovered suggested serval discrete spawning events in both years. Total eggs deposited for three 1996 sampling days …

Heat And Salt Changes On The Continental Shelf West Of The Antarctic Peninsula Between January 1993 And January 1994, John M. Klinck

CCPO Publications

Hydrographic measurements from four cruises between January 1993 and January 1994 over the continental shelf west of the Antarctic Peninsula allow analysis of seasonal changes in heat and salt content of this region. Changes above the permanent pycnocline (about 150 m) follow a seasonal pattern of cooling and increasing in salt from summer to winter and warming and freshening from winter to summer. These near-surface changes expressed as net heating or salting rate, were above 80 W m(-2) and 4 mg salt m(-2) s(-1). The year to year difference was small compared to the seasonal changes. There was no seasonal …

The Biogeochemical Cycling Of Dissolved Organic Nitrogen In Estuarine Sediments, David J. Burdige, Shilong Zheng

OES Faculty Publications

Benthic fluxes and pore-water profiles of dissolved organic nitrogen and carbon (DON and DOC, respectively) were determined in seasonal studies at contrasting sites in Chesapeake Bay. Pore-water dissolved organic matter (DOM) concentrations were elevated over bottom-water values, generally increased with depth, and ranged from 15 to similar to 160 μM for DON and ~200-2000 μM for DOC. Pore-water DOM concentrations and the C:N ratio of this material showed spatial (depth) and temporal changes that varied among the sites studied. These trends appeared to be related to differences in the types of sediment organic matter (SOM) undergoing remineralization, as well as …

Iron In Ice Cores From Law Dome, East Antarctica: Implications For Past Deposition Of Aerosol Iron, R. Edwards, Peter N. Sedwick, Vin Morgan, C. F. Boutron, S. Hong

OES Faculty Publications

Total-dissolvable iron has been measured in sections of three ice cores from Law Dome, East Antarctica, and the results used to calculate atmospheric iron deposition over this region during the late Holocene and to provide a preliminary est. of aerosol iron deposition during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Ice-core sections dating from 56-2730 BP (late Holocene) and ∼18 000 BP (LGM) were decontaminated using trace-metal clean techniques, and total-dissolvable iron was determined in the acidified meltwaters by flow-injection analysis. Our results suggest that the atmospheric iron flux onto the Law Dome region has varied significantly over time-scales ranging from seasonal …

Lead Isotopes And Selected Metals In Ice From Law Dome, Antarctica, K. J. R. Rosman, W. Chisholm, C. F. Boutron, S. Hong, R. Edwards, Vin Morgan, Peter N. Sedwick

OES Faculty Publications

The isotopic composition. of Pb and the concentrations of Pb, Ba and Bi were measured in selected ice-core samples from Law Dome, East Antarctica, to a depth of 1196 m. The range of concentrations found in decontaminated ice was 0.03-1.5 pg g^-1 for Pb, 0.9-6.1 pg g^-1 for Ba and 0.4-17 fg g^-1 for Bi, excluding the deepest sample which contained ∼1 ppm of rock dust. The abundances of all four stable lead isotopes were measured and gave ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁷Pb ratios ≤ ∼1.23. A value of ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁷Pb = 2.78 was measured in …

A Geochemical Study Of Marine Sediments From The Mac. Robertson Shelf, East Antarctica: Initial Results And Palaeoenvironmental Implications, Peter N. Sedwick, P. T. Harris, L. G. Robertson, G. M. Mcmurtry, M. D. Cremer, P. Robinson

OES Faculty Publications

Sediments from the Antarctic continental margin may provide detailed palaeoenvironmental records for Antarctic shelf waters during the late Quaternary. Here we present results from a palaeoenvironmental study of two sediment cores recovered from the continental shelf off Mac. Robertson Land, East Antarctica. These gravity cores were collected approximately 90 km apart from locations on the inner and outer shelf. Both cores are apparently undisturbed sequences of diatom ooze mixed with fine, quartz-rich sand. Core stratigraphies have been established from radiocarbon analyses of bulk organic carbon. Down-core geochemical determinations include the lithogenic components Al and Fe, biogenic components opal and organic …

Subsurface Heavy-Metal Detection With The Use Of A Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (Libs) Penetrometer System, Brian Miles, Javier Cortes

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station (WES) investigators have designed, fabricated, and demonstrated a cone penetrometer sensor for subsurface in situ field screening based on LIBS. The LIBS probe (patent pending) presented here is one of a suite of contaminant and geophysical probes developed by the WES Site Characterization and Analysis Penetrometer System (SCAPS) program. The LIBS probe includes a laser as part of the optical LIBS sensor section for metals analysis and a cone and sleeve soil classification module at its tip. Soil classification data are acquired during the push, while LIBS data are recorded during probe retraction, after …