Evaluating the impacts of land management and climate variability on crop production and nitrate export across the Upper Mississippi Basin

The increased use of nitrogen (N) fertilizers in the Mississippi Basin since the 1950s is partially responsible for an increase in crop production, but also a massive increase in nitrate export by the Mississippi River. We used the IBIS terrestrial ecosystem model, including new maize and soybean submodels, and the HYDRA hydrological transport model to investigate the role of climate variability, land cover and N‐fertilizer application on crop...