Turning Soils Into Sponges

The Union of Concerned Scientists argues that shifting from conventional farming to practices that create 'spongelike' soils—such as using cover crops and perennial crops—can significantly reduce flood runoff and increase water availability during droughts. A meta-analysis of 126 experiments showed that 70 percent of cases using these practices saw increased water infiltration. Modeling for Iowa suggests that converting one-third of cropped acres (the least profitable and most erodible) to continuous cover could have reduced runoff by 20 percent during the 2011 Missouri River floods and increased crop water availability by up to 16 percent during the 1988 and 2012 droughts. The report calls for federal policy changes to the USDA and crop insurance programs to incentivize these soil management practices.

• A meta-analysis of 126 peer-reviewed field experiments indicates that 70 percent of the studies showed an increase in water infiltration when using no-till cropping, cover crops, ecological livestock grazing, crop-livestock integration, or perennial crops.
• Maintaining 'continuous living cover'—achieved through perennials, cover crops, or improved grazing—is the most effective strategy for improving water infiltration. Perennial crop systems were particularly effective, with over half of the experiments involving them increasing infiltration enough to absorb a heavy rain event of one inch per hour.
• Cover crops and perennial systems improve soil structure by increasing porosity (the space between particles) by an average of 8 percent compared to systems that leave soil bare, making an average of 9 percent more water available to plants.
• In Iowa, converting the most-erodible one-third of cropped acres to perennial crops or corn/soybeans with winter cover crops could have reduced runoff in the Iowa watershed feeding the Missouri River by 20 percent during the 2011 floods.
• Strategic adoption of continuous cover practices could have reduced flood frequency in various Iowa watersheds: by 20 percent in eastern Iowa in 1993, 17 percent in Cedar Rapids in 2008, and 13 percent in western Iowa in 2011.
• The use of perennials and cover crops could have increased water availability for crops by up to 16 percent during the severe droughts of 1988 and 2012.
• Future climate projections for Iowa, which expect hotter and slightly wetter conditions, suggest that continuous cover agriculture would result in runoff reductions of 9 to 15 percent and 7 to 11 percent more water available for crop use.
• Federal crop insurance payouts for flood and drought claims totaled $38.5 billion between 2011 and 2016, and these costs could increase by $4 billion to $9 billion annually by 2080 due to climate change.

APA

Basche, A. (2017). Turning Soils Into Sponges. Union of Concerned Scientists. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2017/08/turning-soils-into-sponges-summary-august-2017.pdf

Chicago

Basche, Andrea. Turning Soils Into Sponges. Union of Concerned Scientists, 2017. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2017/08/turning-soils-into-sponges-summary-august-2017.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Basche |first1=Andrea |title=Turning Soils Into Sponges |publisher=Union of Concerned Scientists |date=August 2017 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2017/08/turning-soils-into-sponges-summary-august-2017.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{basche2017turning, author = {Basche, Andrea}, title = {{Turning Soils Into Sponges}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2017}, month = aug, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2017/08/turning-soils-into-sponges-summary-august-2017.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }