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Extremes of Moisture: A system for real time soil moisture monitoring and forecasting in Manitoba

Crop Types
  • Whole Farm
Collaborating Locations

Background

Soil moisture levels fluctuate constantly and can increase dramatically with a single rainfall event. Soil moisture can vary greatly in small spatial areas such that near-drought levels can exist in topographic highs situated very closely to saturated conditions in topographic lows. In additonal soil type can create large variability in moisture. Heavy rainfall can create trafficability issues for several days in heavy soils, while coarse-textured soils may only be impacted for a few hours in the same geographical location. With the effects of climate change expected to produce more dramtic precipitation fluctuatuons going forward, there is an expectation that farmers will expereince more extremes of mositure more frequently. This study is a small-scale study to validate the Aquanty HGS model in the Red River Valley to aid in the establishing the Aquanty model in the RRV area of Manitoba.

This project is a sub-project of a multi-collaborator project on the Extremes of Moisture.

View all Extremes of Moisture projects

Key Takeaways

This study was the initial steps at calibrating the HGS model, further work needs to be done in order to fully calibrate the model for use in the Red River Valley.

Project Details

Principal Investigator
Dr. Paul Bullock
Project Status
Completed
Start Date
2019
Completion Date
2022
Funding Partners
MCGA, MPSG, MB Agriculture
Total Project Cost
179659

Field Issues

  • Abiotic Stress

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