Sustainable irrigation and climate feedbacks

Yi Yang; Zhenong Jin; Nathaniel D Mueller; Avery W Driscoll; Rebecca R Hernandez; Steven M Grodsky; Lindsey L Sloat; Mikhail V Chester; Yong-Guan Zhu; David B Lobell

doi:10.1038/s43016-023-00821-x

Sustainable irrigation and climate feedbacks

Nat Food. 2023 Aug;4(8):654-663. doi: 10.1038/s43016-023-00821-x. Epub 2023 Aug 17.

Authors

Yi Yang¹, Zhenong Jin², Nathaniel D Mueller^{3

4}, Avery W Driscoll⁵, Rebecca R Hernandez^{6

7}, Steven M Grodsky^{8

9}, Lindsey L Sloat^{10

5

11}, Mikhail V Chester¹², Yong-Guan Zhu^{13

14}, David B Lobell^{15

16}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region's Eco-Environment, Ministry of Education, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China.
² Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA. jinzn@umn.edu.
³ Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA. nathan.mueller@colostate.edu.
⁴ Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA. nathan.mueller@colostate.edu.
⁵ Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
⁶ Wild Energy Center, Institute of the Environment, Davis, CA, USA.
⁷ Department of Land, Air & Water Resources, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
⁸ Institute of the Environment, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
⁹ New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, US Geological Survey, Ithaca, NY, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
¹¹ Land and Carbon Lab, World Resources Institute, Washington, DC, USA.
¹² School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
¹³ Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China.
¹⁴ Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
¹⁵ Center on Food Security and the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

PMID: 37591963
DOI: 10.1038/s43016-023-00821-x

Abstract

Agricultural irrigation induces greenhouse gas emissions directly from soils or indirectly through the use of energy or construction of dams and irrigation infrastructure, while climate change affects irrigation demand, water availability and the greenhouse gas intensity of irrigation energy. Here, we present a scoping review to elaborate on these irrigation-climate linkages by synthesizing knowledge across different fields, emphasizing the growing role climate change may have in driving future irrigation expansion and reinforcing some of the positive feedbacks. This Review underscores the urgent need to promote and adopt sustainable irrigation, especially in regions dominated by strong, positive feedbacks.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Agricultural Irrigation
Climate Change
Feedback
Greenhouse Gases*
Knowledge

Substances

Greenhouse Gases