<div>Multicore architectures employ multiple processing cores that work together for greater processing power. Shared memory, symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) systems are ubiquitous. All software must be explicitly designed to support SMP processing, including operating systems. XINU is a simple, lightweight, elegant operating system that has existed for several decades and has been ported to many platforms. However, XINU has never been extended to support multicore processing. This project incrementally adds SMP support to the XINU operating system. Core kernel modules, including the scheduler and memory manager, have been successfully extended without overhauling or completely redesigning XINU. A multicore methodology is laid out for the remaining kernel modules.</div><p></p>

Subsurface tile drainage is a common management practice implemented by farmers throughout the Midwest in fields that have poorly drained soils. Tile drainage has several benefits including increased productivity, reduced erosion, and increased trafficability. However, relatively little is known about the long-term change of soil properties that may occur as a result of subsurface drainage. Careful monitoring of tile drains at the long-term experimental site at the Southeast Purdue Agricultural Center led to the observation of faster drain flow than in the past, with hydrographs of the flow showing flashier peaks, suggesting that more preferential flow paths have developed over time. The overall goal of this study was to characterize possible evolution of physical and hydraulic properties of this silt loam soil after 35 years of subsurface drainage. Bulk density and water retention were measured in May of 2018 at 0-5 cm, 5-15 cm, and 15-30 cm in all plots and again in July of 2019 in the 5 m and 40 m spacings at four different horizons down to depths of approximately 100 cm, rather than set depth increments. Bulk density results from both sets of sampling show the 5 m spacing to have a significantly lower bulk density than the 40 m spacing in the top 30 cm of soil, although the difference was small. Differences in water retention among treatments were too small to be physically meaningful. Saturated hydraulic conductivity results measured by three different methods were highly variable and no differences were detected. In soils with naturally weak structure, low organic matter, and low clay content, like the soil in this study, the processes responsible for soil aggregation, structure stabilization, and lowering bulk density are inherently slow and may require longer than 35 years of subsurface drainage to produce significant changes in the physical properties measured.

<p>Disturbance regimes like freezing and thawing (FT) can have potentially significant impacts on nutrient release from soil and are predicted to increase with climate change. This is particularly important in biogeochemical hotspots like floodplains that can both remove and release nutrients to surface waters during flooding. Connection between the river and floodplain can improve water quality by reducing nutrient loads through microbial processes and sedimentation. However, conditions during flooding can also lead to phosphorus (P) release from pools that are not normally bioavailable. Disturbance events like FT can also lead to changes in bioavailable P due to microbial cell lysis. This study investigates differences in P chemistry and flux during flooding from intact soil cores that have undergone a FT cycle compared to soils that have not undergone freezing. Floodplain soils were collected from four sites along the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers in Indiana. We hypothesized that (i) the primary pools of P within the soil would change with freezing (ii) and flooding; (iii) frozen treatment cores would release more P during flood incubations than unfrozen control cores; and (iv) processes controlling P release during flood incubations would change after FT due to changes in the primary pools of P in the soil cores. </p> <p> </p> <p>On average, soil cores that underwent FT released greater amounts of P than unfrozen cores over the course of the 3-week experimental flood incubation. Phosphorus release in both unfrozen control and FT treatment cores during flooding was explained in part by soil extractable Al and Fe and redox status; however, P release was influenced by soil Ca-P in the FT cores to a greater extent than unfrozen cores. Phosphorus release in FT cores occurred faster than in control cores with overlying water concentrations peaking 2 weeks after onset of flooding, followed by lower concentrations at 3 weeks. Whereas control cores had some release and uptake early on but then released P throughout the 3-week incubation—supporting the hypothesis that drivers of P release were different after FT. Interactive effects of FT and flooding suggest that concentration gradients between soil pore water and overlying surface water could have enhanced dissolution of the Ca-P pool, highlighting the importance of floodwater chemistry to P dynamics following FT. This study provides an important link between observed winter floodplain P loss and potential drivers of release and retention, which is critical to informing floodplain restoration design and management through all seasons.</p>

Water resources for outdoor areas, such as lawns and landscapes, continues to become limited in many urban areas, especially in times of acute drought stress. Lawn species selection and cultural practices, such as mowing height, can strongly influence overall seasonal water needs. While previous research has reported various lawn species water use rates and differences in the ability of some cultivars to maintain green coverage during acute drought stress, little is known regarding the irrigation requirements of cool-season lawn species when using a deficit irrigation strategy based on a green coverage target threshold (e.g. 60-80% green) approach. Two greenhouse studies were conducted to screen various candidate species and seed mixtures in a sandy media. The highest water use and worst appearance/green coverage was associated with an inexpensive commercial lawn mixture; and the lowest water use and best appearance was generally associated with improved Kentucky bluegrass (<i>Poa pratensis</i> L.: KBG) cultivars. Field studies were conducted to quantify the irrigation requirements of drought susceptible (DS) and improved, drought tolerant (DT) KBG and tall fescue [<i>Schedonorus arundinaceus</i> (Schreb.): TF] cultivars, blends and mixtures at two mowing heights (5.1 or 8.9 cm). Results from a 74-day field study using a deficit irrigation replacement approach with a 70% green coverage threshold (GCT₇₀) irrigation trigger, demonstrated water savings of approximately 73 to 78% when using a DT TF (60.3 mm) as compared to 100% evapotranspiration (ET­_o) replacement (223.4 mm) and a conventional lawn irrigation approach (268.5 mm), respectively. The time to reach the GCT₇₀ generally ranked: TF=TF:KBG mixture>KBG and ranged from 18.0 days for DS ‘Right’ KBG and 52.5 days for DT ‘RainDance’ TF. Among TF and KBG cultivars using the GCT­₇₀irrigation approach, DT TF required 35 to 68% less supplemental irrigation compared to DT and DS KBG cultivars (92.1 vs. 187.3 mm), respectively. Within KBG cultivars, the DT ‘Desert Moon’ required one-half the irrigation of DS Right (92.1 vs. 187.3 mm), while there were no differences among TF cultivars for irrigation needs. Mowing height did not affect KBG irrigation needs, but TF at 5.1 cm showed increased visual quality and green coverage, and significantly reduced irrigation requirements. Field research also compared species mixtures and blends using DS and DT KBG and TF to determine the amount of a DT species/cultivar that would enhance drought performance with ratios ranging from 25-100% DT as well as 90:10 TF:KBG mixtures. The quantity of a DT KBG in a blend, and DT TF in a TF:KBG mixture reduced irrigation needs, whereas the drought rating of the KBG cultivar in a TF:KBG mixture had no significant effect. In summary, these studies continue to demonstrate that significant supplemental lawn irrigation savings can be achieved by the selection of superior DT species and cultivars combined with a deficit irrigation replacement approach compared to other cool-season species and conventional irrigation practices.

Agricultural runoff is one of largest contributors of phosphorus (P), nitrogen (N), and sediment affecting freshwater systems in watersheds across the Northeastern U.S., including the Lake Champlain Basin in Vermont. Agricultural cropping systems, such as corn silage and haylands, used for dairy feed production have been shown to impact watershed hydrology and water quality. Agricultural best management practices (BMPs) have the potential to decrease runoff volumes and flow rates and the associated export of nutrients and sediment from agricultural fields. Many states in the Northeastern U.S., including Vermont, are beginning to require farmers to implement water quality BMPs and further improve risk evaluation of export of P in runoff using evolving P site assessment tools, such as the Phosphorus Index (P-Index). Quantifying the effects of BMPs on hydrologic and nutrient exports from fields is critical for informing site assessment tools that aid in the development of nutrient management plans and to help design agroecosystems that do not degrade water quality. However, there is a lack of data on the effects of BMPs on edge-of-field hydrologic and nutrient fluxes, especially in cold-climate regions with snow-melt induced runoff events. This thesis consists of four chapters, Chapter 1 is a comprehensive literature review on agricultural hydrology and water quality, BMP effectiveness, and P site assessment tools. Chapters 2 and 3 address research objectives related to the evaluation of BMP and P site assessment tool effectiveness. Chapter 4 is a summary of the conclusions drawn from the work done in Chapters 2 and 3, and suggestions for future work. Chapter 2 evaluates the effects of soil aeration prior to manure application on edge-of-field hydrology, water quality, and P fluxes in haylands with clay soils during both precipitation and snow-melt induced runoff events. Edge-of-field water quality monitoring techniques and passive-capillary lysimeter systems were used to continuously measure the losses of surface runoff, subsurface leachate, and the associated export of nutrients (total phosphorus, total dissolved phosphorus, total nitrogen, and total dissolved nitrogen) and total suspended solids resulting from runoff events year-round from 2012 to 2018. Annual P fluxes in the form of vegetative uptake and removal, manure additions, and soil test P were also recorded. Results from this study indicated that soil aeration had the potential to reduce nutrient and sediment exports from haylands with poorly-drained, high runoff producing soils in the Northeastern U.S. where winter freeze-thaw conditions exist. However, potential increases in surface and subsurface hydrologic flows can accompany these reductions; these implications should be considered before implementation. Chapter 3 identifies potential P-Index improvements through the representation of topographic controls on phosphorus (P) transport by comparing results from the Vermont P-Index (VT P-Index) and a more complex process-based model, TopoSWAT, across topographic regions in a small agricultural watershed (360 ha) in the Lake Champlain Basin. Scenarios of varying P management strategies were modeled for corn silage production fields with poorly-drained soils and rolling topography. Modeled outputs of P risk assessments and edge-of-field dissolved and particulate P losses were compared. Results from this study suggest that the VT P-Index could improve its ability to support farm nutrient management planning and other P-based management decisions by incorporating topographic controls of runoff production into its estimation of P transport.

<p>In the midwestern United States, nitrogen (N) pollution of surface and groundwaters is a substantial threat to water quality because of its ecological and human health effects. Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico is primarily caused by N runoff within the Mississippi River basin, and nitrate in drinking water may negatively impact human health in both adults and children. </p><p>Agricultural tile drainage is a common practice that facilitates the transport of N from fields to streams. While the impacts of tile drainage have been studied extensively at the field scale, the impacts on hydrology, nutrient transport, and groundwater recharge are still uncertain at the watershed and landscape scales. </p><p>The overall goal of this thesis work is to assess how tile drainage affects landscape-scale connectivity, hydrologic travel times, and N transport across a large catchment in west-central Indiana using 10 years of bi-annual water chemistry and stable isotope data from a community science education event. Land use data and a previously developed travel time distribution (TTD) model were also incorporated to accomplish this goal. A secondary goal is to estimate seasonal differences in groundwater recharge in west-central Indiana using stable water isotope data from precipitation and groundwater samples. </p><p>Qualitative travel times derived from δ²H and δ¹⁸O variability support the idea that short travel times have greater nitrate concentrations than long travel times. Greater N concentrations are also observed during wetter conditions with increased connectivity. The results of the GIS TTD model support the hypothesis that increasing drainage intensity reduces travel times. Groundwater recharge appears negligible in Tippecanoe County using a traditional water balance approach, but an isotope mass balance approach suggests that about 55-65% of annual recharge occurs during the summer and may be linked to intense precipitation events. </p><p>This knowledge improves our understanding of N transport and hydrologic connectivity in tile drained landscapes. The results of this thesis also demonstrate the importance of drainage density for travel times and provide additional insight into the seasonality of groundwater recharge in west-central Indiana. </p>

A feasibility study of an irrigation development proposal should include an analysis of the effects of water supply conditions on the degree to which development objectives are expected to be realised. A method of making this analysis was developed based on procedures for solving two problems. These were; (a) optimally allocating a property's available supply of water among competing crops, and, (b) optimally controlling an open channel distribution system to meet temporally and spatially varying water demand. The procedure developed for solving (a) was applied. A stochastic dynamic programming procedure was developed to optimally schedule the irrigation of a single crop, subject to constraints on the timing of water availability and total application depth. A second procedure was developed, employing a constrained differential dynamic programming algorithm, for determining optimal irrigation schedules for use with variable application depth systems, and when several crops compete for an intra-seasonally limited supply of water. This procedure was called, as frequently as water supply conditions allowed, to provide short-term irrigation schedules in a computer simulation of the optimal irrigation of several crops. An application system model was included in these procedures to transform a crop water-use production function into the required irrigation water-use production function. This transformation was a function of the application device type and the mean application depth. From an analysis of the on-property effects of water supply conditions, it was concluded that in order to achieve high economic and irrigation efficiencies, water supply conditions must be sufficiently flexible to allow the application system operator to vary the mean application depth but not necessarily the time periods of water availability. Additionally, irrigation scheduling procedures which seek economically optimum strategies offer the potential to achieve a maximum level of net benefit at levels of water availability significantly lower than has previously been used for design purposes.

<p>Eutrophication due to phosphorus (P) enrichment continues to be a primary water quality concern affecting freshwater and marine estuaries around the world. Excessive anthropogenic P inputs, driven by the need to meet the rising food and energy demands of a growing and increasingly urbanized population, have resulted in the buildup of P creating legacy (historical) P pools in agricultural landscapes. There is growing evidence that remobilization of accumulated legacy P can interfere with conservation efforts aimed at curbing eutrophication and improving water quality. Less is known about the magnitude and effects of these legacy P pools on dissolved reactive P (DRP) losses in tile-drained systems. This dissertation consists of three separate inquiries into how legacy P may affect DRP losses in tile drains. In the first inquiry, we examined the possibility of developing a suitable pedo-transfer function (pedoTF) for estimating P sorption capacity (PSC). Subsequent PSC-based indices (Phosphorus Saturation Ratio (PSR) and Soil Phosphorus Storage Capacity (SPSC)) were evaluated using daily water quality data from an in-field laboratory. The pedoTF derived from soil aluminum and organic matter accurately predicted PSC (R² = 0.60). Segmented-line models fit between PSR and soluble P (SP) concentrations in both desorption assays (R² = 0.69) and drainflows (R² = 0.66) revealed apparent PSR thresholds in close agreement at 0.21 and 0.24, respectively. Linear relationships were observed between negative SPSC values and increasing SP concentrations (R² = 0.52 and R² =0.53 respectively), and positive SPSC values were associated with very low SP concentrations in both desorption assays and drainflows. Zero SPSC was suggested as a possible environmental threshold. Thus, PSC-based indices determined using a pedoTF could estimate the potential for SP loss in tile drains. Also, both index thresholds coincided with the critical soil test P level for agronomic P sufficiency (22 mg kg^-1 Mehlich 3 P) suggesting that the agronomic threshold could serve as an environmental P threshold. In the second inquiry, PSC- based indices in addition to other site characteristics present in a P index (PI), were used as inputs in the development of a multi-layer feed-forward artificial neural network (MLF-ANN). The MLF-ANN was trained, tested, and validated to evaluate its performance in predicting SP loss in tile drains. Garson’s algorithm was used to determine the weight of each site characteristic. To assess the performance of ANN-generated weights, empirical data from an in-field laboratory was used to evaluate the performance of an unweighted PI (PI_NO), a PI weighted using Lemunyon and Gilbert weights (PI_LG), and an ANN-weighted PI (PI_ANN) in estimating SP losses in tile effluent. The MLF-ANN provided reliable predictions of SP concentrations in tile effluent (R² = 0.99; RMSE = 0.0024). Soil test P, inorganic fertilizer application rate (FPR), SPSC, PSR, and organic P fertilizer application rate (OPR), with weights of 0.279, 0.233, 0.231, 0.097, and 0.084, respectively, were identified as the top five site characteristics with the highest weights explaining SP loss in tile discharge. These results highlighted the great contribution of both contemporary and legacy P sources to SP concentrations in tile discharge. Also, PI_ANNwas the only PI with a significant exponential relationship with measured annual SP concentrations (R²= 0.60; p < 0.001). These findings demonstrated that MLF-ANNs coupled with Garson’s algorithm, can accurately quantify weights for individual site characteristics and develop PIs with a strong correlation with measured SP in tile discharge. Finally, in the third inquiry, we compared DRP loads and flow-weighted mean DRP (FDRP) concentrations in P source and P sink soils and evaluated the predominant DRP concentration – discharge (C-Q) behavior in these soils on a daily and event scale. At the daily scale, C-Q patterns were linked to the soil P status whereby a chemostatic and dilution behavior was observed for P source and P sink soils, respectively. At the event scale, C-Q patterns were linked to soil P status, flow path connectivity, and mixing of event water, matrix water, and rising shallow groundwater. The predominant anti-clockwise rotational pattern observed on P source soils suggested that, as the discharge event progressed, contributions from P poor waters including matrix and shallow groundwater resulted in lower DRP concentrations on the rising limb compared to the falling limb. However, the variable flushing and dilution behavior observed on the rising limb suggested that, in addition to discharge and soil P status, rapid exchanges between P pools, the magnitude of discharge events (Q), and the relative number of days to discharge peak (D_rel) also regulated DRP delivery. On the other hand, the predominant non-hysteretic C-Q behavior in P sink soils suggest that DRP loss from these soils can be discounted. Our collective results highlight the need for nutrient and conservation practices focused on P drawdown, P sequestration, and P supply close to the crop needs, which will likely be required to convert P sources to sinks and to avoid the conversion of P sinks to sources. </p>

<p>Drainage water recycling (DWR) is the practice of capturing, storing, and reusing subsurface drained agricultural water to support supplemental irrigation and has recently been proposed as a practice for improving the crop production and water quality performance in the tile-drained landscape of the U.S. Midwest. This study describes the development of a modeling framework to quantify the potential irrigation and water quality benefits of DWR systems in tile-drained landscapes and the application of the model using ten years of measured weather, tile drain flow and nutrient concentrations, water table, and soil data from two sites in the U.S. Midwest. From this modeling framework, the development and testing of an open-source online tool is also presented.</p><p></p><p>A spreadsheet model was developed to track water flows between a reservoir and drained and irrigated field area at each site. The amount of tile drain flow and associated nutrient loads that could be captured from the field and stored in the reservoir was estimated to calculate the potential water quality benefits of the system. Irrigation benefits were quantified based on the amount of applied irrigation annually. A reservoir size representing 6% to 8% of the field area with an average depth of 3.05 m was sufficient in meeting the annual irrigation requirements during the 10-year period at each site. At this reservoir size, average annual nitrate-N loads were reduced by 20% to 40% and soluble reactive phosphorus loads by 17% to 41%. Variability in precipitation within and across years, and differences in soil water characteristics, resulted in a wide range of potential benefits at the two sites.</p><p>An online tool was developed from the model, and a variance-based global sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine influential and low-sensitivity input parameters. The input parameter, depth of root zone, was the most influential input parameter suggesting that the estimation of total available water for the field water balance is a critical component of the model. Input settings describing the irrigation management and crop coefficients for the initial establishment and mid-season crop growth periods were also influential in impacting the field water balance. Reservoir seepage rate was influential in regard to the reservoir water balance, particularly at larger reservoir sizes. Sensitivity analysis results were used to develop a user-interface for the tool, Evaluating Drainage Water Recycling Decisions (EDWRD).</p><p>This study shows that DWR is capable of providing both irrigation and water quality benefits in the tile-drained landscape of the U.S. Midwest. The developed modeling framework supports future research on the development of strategies to implement and manage DWR systems, and the online tool serves as a resource for users to increase their awareness and understanding of the potential benefits of this novel practice.</p><p></p>

<p>  </p> <p>The management of water resources in East Africa is inherently challenged by rainfall variability and the uneven spatial distribution of freshwater resources. In addition to these issues, meteorological and water data collection has been inconsistent over the past decades, and unclearly defined purposes or end goals for collected data have left many datasets ineffectively curated. In light of the data intensiveness of current modelling and planning methods, data scarcity and inaccessibility have become substantial impediments to informed decision-making. Among the outputs of this research are 1) a revised technique for evaluating bias correction performance on reanalysis data for use in regions where precipitation data is temporally discontinuous which can potentially be applied to other types of climate data as well, 2) a new methodology for quantifying qualitative information contained in legislation and official documents and websites for the assessment of relationships between documented meteorological and water data policies and resulting outcomes in terms of data availability and accessibility, and 3) a fresh look at data needs and the value data holds with respect to water resources decision-making and management in the region.</p>