About

Margaret Kalcic is an Associate Professor in the Biological Systems Engineering department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research and outreach focus on increasing the adoption of effective agricultural conservation measures to protect water quality and the environment. She works closely with community partners to refine hydrology and water quality models, conduct edge-of-field monitoring, and develop strategies for watershed management. Her background includes a B.S. in General Engineering with a concentration in Bioengineering from Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, and both an M.S. and Ph.D. in Ecological Sciences and Engineering from Purdue University. Her expertise encompasses agricultural hydrology, water quality modeling, agricultural conservation, geospatial analysis, and interdisciplinary watershed management research.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Environmental science
• Ecology
• Geography
• Geology
• Climatology
• Engineering
• Chemistry
• Soil science
• Agronomy
• Mathematics
• Environmental engineering
• Meteorology
• Cartography
• Environmental resource management
• World Wide Web
• Statistics
• Metallurgy
• Materials science
• Atmospheric sciences
• Water resource management
• Forestry
• Database
• Biology

Selected publications

• Soil health indicators respond to management practices on commercial farms

  Geoderma · 2026-01-14

  articleOpen access

  • Assessed the effects of 4 management practices on 6 soil health indicators across 50 fields. • Manure application was consistently positively related to greater soil health. • Reduced tillage intensity was positively related to greater soil health for a subset of indicators. • Living crop cover and crop diversity were both not strongly related to soil health values. Soil health is an objective of management practices including reduced tillage intensity, manure application, crop rotation, and cover crops. However, the relative effectiveness of these practices for promoting healthier soil remains uncertain. We assessed the responses of six soil health indicators (soil organic matter, soil respiration, permanganate oxidizable C (POX-C), soil protein, mean weight diameter of water stable aggregates, and bulk density) to four management practices (manure application, reduced tillage, living cover in fall and spring, and crop diversity) across 50 commercial crop fields in Ohio and Indiana, USA. Simple linear regression, multiple linear regression and random forest analyses largely identified similar relationships between soil health and management practices. Manure application rate was consistently and positively associated with greater soil health values, although the relationship with bulk density was weak. Reduced tillage intensity was associated with greater protein and respiration, but decreased POX-C. Living cover and crop diversity each had limited relationships with the soil health indicators. Soil texture was an important factor driving variability in most soil health indicators. Reducing the management period from 5 yr to 3 yr tended to reduce the predictive ability of the models, but with limited exceptions similar relationships between management and soil health were identifiable. The depth of measurement of soil health indicators changed the interpretation of management-soil health relationships in only one instance (POX-C vs. reduced tillage intensity). Overall, manure application was the most effective practice for improving soil health, with reduced tillage intensity also effective for improving several soil health indicators.

  PublisherDOI

• A retrospective analysis of climate and land management drivers of nutrient export from the western Lake Erie watershed: 1980-2019

  Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management · 2025-06-16

  article

  The return of harmful algal blooms to western Lake Erie has heightened the focus on managing nutrient loading from its watershed, and particularly the large, agricultural Maumee River Watershed (MRW). Increased dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP) loads over the last twenty years are suspected to be a primary cause of the recurrence and severity of these blooms. The primary cause of increasing DRP is still unclear, and therefore management efforts to reverse this trend are difficult to develop. We used a refined model of the MRW to investigate changes in climate and land management between 1980 and 2019 to identify key factors driving trends in DRP as well as discharge and other nutrient forms that impact algal biomass and toxicity. We found that the dominant drivers of discharge and nutrients varied: historical climate trends drove discharge and nitrogen concentrations, while historical management changes were more responsible for changing phosphorus concentrations. Among the land management changes examined, the rising adoption of minimal- and no-tillage strategies had the greatest impact on nutrient trends, leading to reductions in total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), and nitrate (NO3), yet increases in DRP. We posit that a better understanding of the water quality impacts of past land management enables modelers and managers to more accurately predict the impacts of potential future management changes.

  PublisherDOI

• The Effect of Alfalfa on Subsurface Discharge and Nutrient Losses Mediated by Precipitation and Antecedent Moisture Conditions

  JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association · 2025-04-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  ABSTRACT This study examines the effect of alfalfa ( Medicago sativa L .) on nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) loads in subsurface (tile) drainage across storm events using edge‐of‐field monitoring data from two paired‐field sites (A and B) with a before‐after‐control‐impact (BACI) experimental design, located in the northwest region of Ohio, United States. A k‐medians cluster analysis was used to classify 462 storm events at Site A and 684 storm events at Site B based on precipitation amount and antecedent moisture conditions (AMC), defined as the cumulative 7‐day precipitation prior to a storm event. Patterns of nutrient loss in tile drainage were compared between fields with alfalfa and fields with cash and cover crops using a difference‐in‐differences analysis across three identified storm event types: Dry storm events, wet storm events, and large storm events. Compared to the cash and cover crop rotations, alfalfa had the following effects on discharge and water quality: little to no reduction in subsurface discharge across all storm events at both sites; significant reduction of subsurface nitrate and total N loads across all storm event types at Site A (~200%–800% lower), but not at Site B; ~45% reduction of subsurface dissolved reactive P during large events at both sites; and 11% and 110% reduction of total P loads during large events at Sites A and B, respectively. The impact of alfalfa during large storm events is important given that most nutrient export occurs during these events.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Corrigendum to “Quantifying phosphorus loads from legacy-phosphorus fields” [J. Gt. Lakes 50 (2024) 102446]

  Journal of Great Lakes Research · 2025-01-09

  erratum
  PublisherDOI

• Precipitation-driven variability in runoff and nutrient export from vegetated and unvegetated shallow furrow ditches

  Journal of Soil and Water Conservation · 2025-09-03

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Land-use management and parameterization as sources of uncertainty in hydrologic models: A Maumee River Watershed case study

  Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management · 2025-06-16

  articleSenior author

  The use of hydrological models in water management and policy has grown with increasing demand for scientifically credible solutions to rising environmental concerns. However, difficulty in quantifying uncertainty is a key limitation for interpreting model results. Uncertainties associated with parameters and data inputs are commonly reported. While some studies reported the relative effects of specific farm management implementation, the type and timing of farm field management operations remain some of the most uncertain data inputs and have been poorly studied in the context of model uncertainty. This study aims to assess the relative role of two potential drivers of uncertainty: 1) assumptions made for farm management; and 2) model parameterization through analysis of a Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model of the Maumee River Watershed. We identified a suite of model simulations representing management practices of known importance to the region, and we identified a set of commonly calibrated model parameters and a set of prescribed value combinations representing the range of plausible values for these parameters. SWAT was run over each unique combination of parameter sets, and management realizations. Model outputs were compared with observations to quantify and attribute uncertainty to management inputs and parameterization. We examined the sensitivity of modeled outlet-level discharge and nutrient loading and found that parameterization and management were large contributors to uncertainty across all water quality outputs examined. Furthermore, model uncertainty in discharge was dominated by parameterization, while uncertainty in nutrient loading was dominated by management inputs. Based on the results, we suggest that when developing models for informing decision making, management practices that are implemented using the best available spatial and temporal data likewise undergo a management implementation sensitivity analysis and that these results are reported in the context of uncertainty, similar parameter uncertainty standards.

  PublisherDOI

• Advancing SWAT modeling with rainfall risk-based fertilizer timing to improve nutrient management and crop yields

  Agricultural Water Management · 2025-05-23 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  In 2016, the United States and Canada agreed to reduce phosphorus inputs to Lake Erie by 40 % to reduce the severity of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). These blooms have become more severe, with record events occurring in 2011 and 2015, and have compromised public safety, leading to do-not-drink advisories and negatively impacting the economy of the Western Lake Erie basin. To determine the potential benefits of avoiding nutrient application during high rainfall events compared to dry periods, we analyzed scenarios using three Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrological models developed for the Maumee River Watershed. These SWAT models were developed by three different institutes and calibrated for flow and nutrient loadings at the watershed outlet. The scenarios varied the timing of nutrient (fertilizer as well as manure) applications at the hydrological response unit (HRU; smallest unit of a model) level based on the risk of rainfall events and included a (1) worst-condition scenario, in which nutrients were applied just before rain events having a high-risk of runoff and a (2) best-condition scenario, in which nutrients were applied during periods carrying a low-risk of runoff. The results demonstrate that applying nutrients during low-risk rainfall events reduced nitrate runoff by 10.9 %, total phosphorus by 1.2 %, and dissolved reactive phosphorus by 3.8 % during the spring season compared to high-risk rainfall events. While, the nitrate, total phosphorus and dissolved reactive phosphorus reductions were 6 % 0.7 % and 2.6 %, respectively on the annual scale. Additionally, nutrient application during high-risk rainfall events led to a reduction in crop yields, with soybean yields decreasing by 4.4 %, corn and rye by 3 %, and winter wheat by up to 5.5 %. These findings underscore the importance of optimizing nutrient application timing to minimize nutrient runoff and enhance crop productivity, contributing to improved water quality in the Great Lakes region. • Novel framework to trigger fertilizer application timings using rainfall risk in SWAT. • Multi-model approach to assess nutrient runoff reductions in different risk scenarios. • Optimized fertilizer timing reduces nutrient loss, boosts crop yields across models.

  PublisherDOI

• The Effect of Alfalfa on Subsurface Discharge and Nutrient Losses Mediated by Precipitation Characteristics and Antecedent Moisture Conditions

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Optimizing Nutrient Application Timing Reduces Nutrient Runoff and Enhances Crop Yields in the Western Lake Erie Basin, USA

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Quantifying phosphorus loads from legacy-phosphorus fields

  Journal of Great Lakes Research · 2024-09-30 · 1 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Rebecca Logsdon Muenich

  31 shared

• Donald Scavia

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  25 shared

• Grey R. Evenson

  Environmental Protection Agency

  18 shared

• Remegio Confesor

  18 shared

• Jay F. Martin

  The Ohio State University

  17 shared

• Anna Apostel

  The Ohio State University

  15 shared

• Awoke Dagnew

  The Carter Center

  14 shared

• Jeffrey Kast

  The Ohio State University

  14 shared

Labs

• Kalcic LabPI

Education

• Ph.D., Biological Systems Engineering

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  2005

• M.S., Biological Systems Engineering

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  2000

• B.S., Biological Systems Engineering

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  1998