Identification and detection of weeds on irrigation canals: Survey of the vegetation and soils of the Leasburg canal system, 2002-2006

              STATE
UNIVERSITY
Identification and Detection of Weeds on
\^i I Irr'g*1*'0" Canals: Survey of the Vegetation and
A^J Soils of the Leasburg Canal System, 2002-2006
Jill Schroeder, Leigh Murray, April Ulery, Cheryl Fiore, Hien Nguyen, Xiaoli Liu'
ESIHE
Table of Contents
Page    ,
Executive Summary	
 1
Introduction
 3
 4
Results and Discussion	
 12
Relationship Between Canal and Soil Texture
Categories	
 12
Numeric Soil (characteristics	
 12
Presence of Selected Vegetation Species as Affected by
Canal Category or Soil Texture Category	
 14
Horsetail	
 14
Cyperus species	
 20
Bermudagrass	
 21
Rice cutgrass	
 23
Johnsongrass	
 27
Echinochloa species	
 29
Plantago species	
 29
Curly dock	
 31
Acknowledgments	
 41
References	
 41
Appendices	
 42
List ofTables, Figures and Appendices	
 61
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The goal of this project was to characterize the vegetation and soils of the canals, laterals, and sublater-
als of the Leasburg/Las Cruces/Mesilla canal system
maintained by Elephant Butte Irrigation District
(EBID). Ihis work provides the first extensive database
of canal and soil characteristics and vegetation during
the peak of the irrigation season for the Leasburg system of the Elephant Butte Irrigation District (http://
aces.nmsu.edu/academics/ErPWS/research-progranis.
html). The database included with this report will
provide the basis for monitoring changes to the system
over time, information from which to develop further
research on the state of the canal system, and management strategies for the vegetation. Statistical models of
vegetation presence will allow for prediction of future
occurrence of important species and possible shifts in
the vegetation community.
Since canal capacity is the most obvious characteristic
of the system and because soil texture often influences
vegetation presence, the data were analyzed first to examine the statistical relationship between canal capacity
and soil texture and to compare canal capacities (or soil
textures) with respect to soil characteristics, and then to
model vegetation presence (i.e., the probability that a
particular species or species category occurs at a particular location) where canal capacity (or soil texture) is the
treatment factor and a soil characteristic is a covariate.
The canals within the Leasburg system were assigned
to one of five capacity categories according to the
EBID-recommended water-flow capacity, which
ranged from 0.4 to 19.6 cubic meters per second
(m3 s'1) (or 15 to 700 cubic feet per second [ft3 s"1]);
canal category 1 was the largest and contained only
the Leasburg Canal, while canal category 5 contained
sublaterals with recommended flow rates of 0.4—0.8
m3 s ' (15-29 ft3 s1). A total of 236 sites, randomly located on these canals, laterals, and sublaterals, were surveyed once during each irrigation season between 2002
and 2006. Information obtained at each site included
a digital photograph; Global Positioning System (GPS)
coordinates; canal characteristics; a composite soil sample
taken from the surface 12 cm and analyzed for the
physical and chemical characteristics of soil texture, pH,
electrical conductivity (EC), sodium adsorption ratio
(SAR), organic matter (OM), nitrate-nitrogen (NO,-N),
phosphorus (P), and potassium (K); and vegetation data,
'Respectively, Professor, Department of Entomology, I'l.ini Pathology .mil Weed Science. New Mexico State University; Professor, Department of Statistics, K.invis
State University; Professor, Department of Plant and Knvironment.il Sciences, NMSU; Research Assistant, I )epartment of Entomology, Plant Pathology and Weed
Science, NMSU; Research Assistant, Department of Economics, NMSU; and Data Analysis Engineer, IM flash lechnologies, I ehi, UT.
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