Crop diversification enhances cropland water-use efficiency across California's Central Valley

Crop diversification enhances cropland water-use efficiency across California's Central Valley | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Crop diversification enhances cropland water-use efficiency across California's Central Valley Sophie Ruehr, Maoya Bassiouni, Yanghui Kang, Yvonne Socolar, Troy Magney, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6322235/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Worsening global water scarcity demands more sustainable water management in agriculture. Diversifying annual crop rotation patterns by incorporating additional species can reduce water consumption by improving soil health and water retention. However, studying crop diversification's effects on water consumption across broad regions has been challenging due to limited availability of spatially-explicit cropland productivity and water consumption information. Here, we analyze cropland water-use efficiency (WUE), the ratio of gross primary productivity to evapotranspiration, in California along a spectrum of monoculture to complex species rotations using novel remote sensing products. We find temporal crop diversification is an important driver of spatial WUE disparities, and increasing the number of species planted in the previous six years from two to four can increase WUE anomalies by approximately 20%. Our results provide large-scale evidence of the potential for temporal species diversification as a climate adaptation strategy that reduces water consumption while maintaining high crop productivity. Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences/Environmental impact Earth and environmental sciences/Hydrology Scientific community and society/Agriculture Scientific community and society/Water resources Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files supplement.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6322235","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":435272746,"identity":"f1410f99-6f34-4e3f-9e73-7e4960c80c97","order_by":0,"name":"Sophie Ruehr","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABFUlEQVRIie3RMUvDQBjG8ecMOJ3OF0qbr/DCgRCo/SwJgbikdO3gkFJIFuNsqR+iY8eUQLIcnbtZce2guFQEY1JEUDzJKJj/cly4H3kvAdra/mbHcA4rB55CQMAI6y0LmxA2OxDWgOCDGCdNiBUn+XY7xoiKJH8+X/ZHZjyZPHD0u4v0Z0JqfUGOgr1Qa28+VL4956up5PCllojgTLgRiDaBNIZRRr1q2+HIXB2xbmryVpG7nTTsqKSedR+/cpRagk1NwvotXBosSqkjWGRwpFpS3cUXTg4yVSBZojwyr9ypeUuenOkGq76Yub8EnRZK4mU5IFFkq8fdeNC91g1W/3Sg/PrsiJPu+Cf5Ftv/Jtra2tr+W+9LsVzvPcgMCAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"University of California Berkeley","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sophie","middleName":"","lastName":"Ruehr","suffix":""},{"id":435272747,"identity":"fbc8890e-16fc-41bf-a810-95a55603f5ea","order_by":1,"name":"Maoya Bassiouni","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of California Berkeley","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Maoya","middleName":"","lastName":"Bassiouni","suffix":""},{"id":435272748,"identity":"727fa6e4-d27c-41a9-bf49-4df6cc04eafa","order_by":2,"name":"Yanghui Kang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Virginia Tech","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yanghui","middleName":"","lastName":"Kang","suffix":""},{"id":435272749,"identity":"ccfe6b44-36e6-4ad1-949f-23d80757fff2","order_by":3,"name":"Yvonne Socolar","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of California Berkeley","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yvonne","middleName":"","lastName":"Socolar","suffix":""},{"id":435272750,"identity":"5e93203b-9bbf-4f88-a62f-bc4d18d09461","order_by":4,"name":"Troy Magney","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Montana","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Troy","middleName":"","lastName":"Magney","suffix":""},{"id":435272751,"identity":"7efcdfa8-246c-4a68-8b3e-a1fcaa2f67d5","order_by":5,"name":"Trevor Keenan","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3347-0258","institution":"UC Berkeley","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Trevor","middleName":"","lastName":"Keenan","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-03-27 16:30:36","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6322235/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6322235/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":79540229,"identity":"c98eaffe-e53a-4634-b59b-ab0720d853f3","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-03-31 03:20:51","extension":"pdf","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":5490402,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"supplement.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6322235/v1/fbcbe8b3ecb03840797b7b0b.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Crop diversification enhances cropland water-use efficiency across California's Central Valley","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":true,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6322235/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6322235/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Worsening global water scarcity demands more sustainable water management in agriculture. Diversifying annual crop rotation patterns by incorporating additional species can reduce water consumption by improving soil health and water retention. However, studying crop diversification's effects on water consumption across broad regions has been challenging due to limited availability of spatially-explicit cropland productivity and water consumption information. Here, we analyze cropland water-use efficiency (WUE), the ratio of gross primary productivity to evapotranspiration, in California along a spectrum of monoculture to complex species rotations using novel remote sensing products. We find temporal crop diversification is an important driver of spatial WUE disparities, and increasing the number of species planted in the previous six years from two to four can increase WUE anomalies by approximately 20%. Our results provide large-scale evidence of the potential for temporal species diversification as a climate adaptation strategy that reduces water consumption while maintaining high crop productivity.","manuscriptTitle":"Crop diversification enhances cropland water-use efficiency across California's Central Valley","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-03-31 03:20:46","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6322235/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"cc988cee-3067-4da0-899f-5205da9e06d3","owner":[],"postedDate":"March 31st, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":46348873,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences/Environmental impact"},{"id":46348874,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Hydrology"},{"id":46348875,"name":"Scientific community and society/Agriculture"},{"id":46348876,"name":"Scientific community and society/Water resources"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-04-02T14:31:03+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-03-31 03:20:46","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6322235","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6322235","identity":"rs-6322235","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}