Phosphorus Losses From Corn Fields
2007
- UW-Madison Department of Biological Systems Engineering
Project Media
A principal focus of water quality management efforts in the U.S. is related to nutrient, specifically nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), export in runoff from agricultural lands. The focus of this discussion is to investigate the influence of residue levels and manure addition on particulate P delivery by runoff. Rainfall runoff samples were collected from three hydrologically isolated hillslope tracts in conservation tillage with the following treatments: corn-grain (CG); corn-silage (CS); and corn-silage with fall manure addition (SM). Rainfall-runoff, frost free (FF) events were sampled from May 2004 through September 2005. Samples were analyzed for solids mass, P in the dissolved and particulate forms, sediment P-mass distribution in five different particle-size classes along with particle and aggregate size distributions, and aggregate stability. This discussion is limited to soil and total phosphorus (TP) loss and the distribution of TP mass over five particle size classes in the sediment.