Effect of preceding rainfall on sediment, nutrients, and bacteria in runoff from biosolids and mineral fertilizer applied to a hayfield in a mountainous region

C.B. Wallace, M.G. Burton, S.G. Hefner and T.A. DeWitt

Agricultural Water Management, 2013, vol. 130, issue C, 113-118

Abstract: Biosolids and mineral fertilizers (MF) can provide nutrient recycling and nutrients for hay production, but excessive or inappropriate applications can also contribute to water quality degradation when sediment, nutrients, and bacteria are included in surface runoff. Rainfall simulation studies were completed in a hayfield typical of the Ozark mountain region to compare sediment and nutrient content, and bacteria concentration in surface runoff from plots receiving biosolids or MF with or without pre-irrigation that simulated small (no runoff) rainfall events. No differences among treatments were detected for total suspended solids. According to an LSD test, fecal coliform colony-forming unit (CFU) levels in runoff in all biosolids treatments and the pre-irrigated MF treatment were similar to the unamended control; however, pre-planned orthogonal contrasts indicated more CFUs were included in runoff from pre-irrigated plots. Pre-irrigating treatments decreased certain forms of nitrogen and phosphorus losses found in surface runoff when compared to treatments that did not receive irrigation before a runoff event. Total Kjeldahl nitrogen, dissolved total Kjeldahl nitrogen, ammoniacal-nitrogen, dissolved ammoniacal-nitrogen, total phosphorus (TP), and dissolved phosphorus (DP) losses from the MF treatment that received a runoff producing rainfall immediately after application were greater than any other treatment (P≤0.05). Similarly, an orthogonal contrast of all MF treatments (with and without pre-irrigation) against the low rate of biosolids treatments (with and without pre-irrigation) revealed that MF had greater runoff losses of TP (P≤0.0001) and DP (P≤0.0002). Results suggest that MF applications have the potential to deliver higher nutrient pollutant loads through surface runoff than biosolids applications when a runoff producing rainfall event occurs soon after amendments are applied. This results in increased risk of nutrient loading to surface waters in states or areas where buffer areas are not required to protect them from MF runoff. In addition, nutrient losses in runoff may decrease when application is made such that small rainfall events occur prior to a runoff producing event.

Keywords: Biosolid; Fertilizer; Nutrient-loading; Runoff; Sediment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377413002151
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:130:y:2013:i:c:p:113-118

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2013.08.006

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().