About

Asmita Murumkar is an Assistant Professor and Ecosystems Services Field Specialist at The Ohio State University. She conducts applied research and outreach activities focused on assessing the impacts of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) on ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, soil health, and water quality under current and future climate conditions. Her work involves developing and evaluating decision tools at farm-to-watershed scales, including the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model for evaluating the effects of conservation practices, NOAA's Ohio Applicator Forecast tool for managing farm nutrient applications based on runoff risk forecasts, USDA's Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework (ACPF) for locating conservation practices, and the NRCS Stewardship Tool for informing payments for ecosystem services like soil carbon and greenhouse gas emissions.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Environmental science
• Climatology
• Ecology
• Geography
• Geology
• Water resource management
• Environmental resource management
• Cartography
• Engineering
• Mathematics

Selected publications

• 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 access1st authorCorresponding

  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

• Flow Modeling of Jojari River in Semi-Arid Western Rajasthan, India Using the Geospatial Techniques and 1D Flow Model Analysis

  Lecture notes in civil engineering · 2025-01-01 · 1 citations

  book-chapter
  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 access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Managing Missing Mukeys in the Qswat+ Ssurgo Database

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

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Using a Multi‐Institutional Ensemble of Watershed Models to Assess Agricultural Conservation Effectiveness in a Future Climate

  JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association · 2022-06-16 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  ABSTRACT This study investigates the combined impacts of climate change and agricultural conservation on the magnitude and uncertainty of nutrient loadings in the Maumee River Watershed, the second‐largest watershed of the Laurentian Great Lakes. Two scenarios — baseline agricultural management and increased agricultural conservation — were assessed using an ensemble of five Soil and Water Assessment Tools driven by six climate models. The increased conservation scenario included raising conservation adoption rates from a baseline of existing conservation practices to feasible rates in the near future based on farmer surveys. This increased adoption of winter cover crops on 6%–10% to 60% of cultivated cropland; subsurface placement of phosphorus fertilizers on 35%–60% to 68% of cultivated cropland; and buffer strips intercepting runoff from 29%–34% to 50% of cultivated cropland. Increased conservation resulted in statistically significant ( p ≤ 0.05) reductions in annual loads of total phosphorus (41%), dissolved reactive phosphorus (18%), and total nitrogen (14%) under the highest emission climate scenario (RCP 8.5). While nutrient loads decreased with increased conservation relative to baseline management for all watershed models, different conclusions on the true effectiveness of conservation under climate change may be drawn if only one watershed model was used.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Uncertainty in critical source area predictions from watershed-scale hydrologic models

  Journal of Environmental Management · 2020 · 39 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Environmental science
  • Environmental resource management
  PublisherDOI

• Trends and spatial patterns of 20th century temperature, rainfall and PET in the semi-arid Logone River basin, Sub-Saharan Africa

  Journal of Arid Environments · 2020-04-04 · 12 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Small-scale anthropogenic changes impact floodplain hydraulics: Simulating the effects of fish canals on the Logone floodplain

  Journal of Hydrology · 2020-05-05 · 19 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Comparing flow predictions of five multi-scale hydrologic models with edge-of-field data in western Lake Erie basin, USA

  AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts · 2020-12-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• The hydrologic model as a source of nutrient loading uncertainty in a future climate

  The Science of The Total Environment · 2020 · 20 citations

  • Environmental science
  • Climatology
  • Ecology
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Remegio Confesor

  12 shared

• Dhyan Singh Arya

  Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

  10 shared

• Tian Guo

  State Grid Corporation of China (China)

  9 shared

• Margaret Kalcic

  9 shared

• Todd Redder

  8 shared

• Jeffrey Kast

  The Ohio State University

  8 shared

• Chelsie Boles

  8 shared

• Anna Apostel

  The Ohio State University

  8 shared