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Nitrogen (N) losses from agriculture are negatively impacting groundwater, air, and surface water quality. New tools are needed to quickly assess these losses and provide nutrient managers and conservationists with effective tools to assess the effects of current and alternative management practices on N loss pathways. A new N-Index tool was developed in spreadsheet format, allowing prompt assessments of management practices on agricultural N losses. The N-Index tool was compared with experimental field data and shown to estimate the effects of management practices on N loss pathways (probability, P < 0.001). The N-Index correctly assessed the nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N) leaching losses when tested against measured...
Long-term applications of organic or inorganic sources of N to croplands can increase the leaching potential of nitrate–nitrogen (NO3–N) for soils underlain by subsurface drainage “tile” network. A field study was conducted for 6 years (1993–1998) to determine the effects of liquid swine manure and urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) solution fertilizer applications on NO3–N concentrations and NO3–N losses with subsurface drainage water under continuous corn (Zea maize L.) and corn after soybean (Glycine max. L.) production systems. The field data collected at Iowa State University's northeastern research center near Nashua, Iowa, under six N-management treatments and each replicated three times, were analyzed as a randomized...
Most forests in North America remain nitrogen limited, although recent studies have identified forested areas that exhibit symptoms of N excess, analogous to overfertilization of arable land. Nitrogen excess in watersheds is detrimental because of disruptions in plant/soil nutrient relations, increased soil acidification and aluminum mobility, increased emissions of nitrogenous greenhouse gases from soil, reduced methane consumption in soil, decreased water quality, toxic effects on fresh-water biota, and eutrophication of coastal marine waters. Elevated nitrate (NO- 3) loss to groundwater or surface waters is the primary symptom of N excess. Additional symptoms include increasing N concentrations and higher N:nutrient...
The nonnative annual grass Bromus tectorum has successfully replaced native vegetation in many arid and semiarid ecosystems. Initial introductions accompanied grazing and agriculture, making it difficult to separate the effects of invasion from physical disturbance. This study examined N dynamics in two recently invaded, undisturbed vegetation associations (C₃ and C₄). The response of these communities was compared to an invaded/disturbed grassland. The invaded/disturbed communities had higher surface NH₄� input in spring, whereas there were no differences for surface input of NO₃�. Soil inorganic N was dominated by NH₄�, but invaded sites had greater subsurface soil NO₃�. Invaded sites had greater...
Studies quantifying winter annual cover crop effects on water quality are mostly limited to short-term studies at the plot scale. Long-term studies scaling-up water quality effects of cover crops to the watershed scale provide more integrated spatial responses from the landscape. The objective of this research was to quantify N loads from artificial subsurface drainage (tile drains) in a subbasin of the Walnut Creek, Iowa (Story county) watershed using the hybrid RZWQ-DSSAT model for a maize (Zea mays L.)-soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] and maize–maize–soybean rotations in all phases with and without a winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cover crop during a 25-year period from 1981 to 2005. Simulated cover crop...
Prediction of nitrate leaching from cropland is crucial for preventing surface or ground water degradation. Accurate modeling of nitrate leaching requires simulations of both soil hydrological and biogeochemical processes. This paper reports an attempt to improve an existing biogeochemical model, Denitrification–Decomposition or DNDC, for estimation of nitrate leaching from crop fields with tile drainage system. DNDC was equipped with detailed biogeochemical processes of nitrogen turnover but a simple module for one-dimensional movement of soil water. Observations from nine drainage tiles with three different fertilizer treatments in 4 years (1996–1999) at an experimental field in Iowa were used for model modifications....