Nitrogen and water management on irrigated alluvial soils to protect ground water quality

Conference · Mon Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1993 · Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States)

OSTI ID:7282802

Schepers, J S ^[1]; Watts, D G; Spalding, R F ^[2]; Peterson, T A

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1. Dept. of Agriculture, Lincoln, NE (United States)
2. Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (United States)

Ground water in much of the Platte River Valley of Central Nebraska is contaminated by nitrate above the drinking water standards. Research has shown that much of the nitrate in ground water is due to excess N fertilizer and irrigation water applied to continuous corn monocultures. Nebraska's Management Systems Evaluation Area (MSEA) project was established in 1990 as part of the President's Water Quality Initiative to develop and demonstrate how state-of-the-art N and water management practices can improve ground water quality while maintaining crop yields. Shallow ground water used for irrigation contains about 30 mg/L nitrate-N, which can be a valuable source of N for crops. Traditional furrow irrigation practices received two to three times as much irrigation water as either surge-flow furrow techniques or center pivot sprinkler irrigation systems. Water moving through the silt loam soil in the field under conventional furrow irrigation resulted in nitrate-N concentrations leaving the root zone averaging about 90 mg/L for the first two applications of water with a total N loss of about 88 kg/ha. Improved water application methods that distribute water more uniformly than conventional furrow irrigation allow fertilizer applications through the irrigation water (fertigation) to correct a crop N deficiency. Chlorophyll meters were used to monitor crop N status and schedule fertigation as needed. Spoon-feeding the crop resulted in a 50 to 70% savings in fertilizer N application rates compared to conventional methods of corn production.

• OSTI ID: 7282802
• Report Number(s): CONF-9303210--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States) Journal Volume: 25:3
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540220* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
540250 -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Site Resource & Use Studies-- (1990-)
58 GEOSCIENCES
580000 -- Geosciences
ALLUVIAL DEPOSITS
CONTAMINATION
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FERTILIZERS
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GROUND WATER
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
IRRIGATION
MASS TRANSFER
NEBRASKA
NITRATES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NORTH AMERICA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
USA
WATER
WATER POLLUTION
WATER QUALITY