Supply and Transport Limitations on Phosphorus Losses from Agricultural Fields in the Lower Great Lakes Region, Canada

Plach, Janina M.; Macrae, Merrin L.; Ali, Genevieve; Brunke, R.; English, Michael; Ferguson, Gabrielle; Lam, W.V.; Lozier, Tatianna M.; McKague, Kevin; O’Halloran, I. P.; Opolko, Gilian; Esbroeck, Christopher J. Van

doi:10.2134/jeq2017.06.0234

Cited by 31 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…There would also be considerable dilution from shallow groundwater and generally enhanced contact between P and subsoils. Greater contact between infiltrating water and subsoils is likely to result in enhanced soil P sorption and attenuation prior to water discharge from tiles (Reid et al, 2012; Andersson et al, 2013; Plach et al, 2018a). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, P losses in tile drainage can be reduced through tillage (Williams et al, 2016; King et al, 2015b) and subsurface P placement (Grant et al, 2019a,b; Williams et al, 2018). Furthermore, studies have demonstrated P supply limitation in tile drainage (Plach et al, 2018a) and suggested that subsurface biogeochemistry can also play a significant role on P retention by subsoils (Plach et al, 2018b; Andersson et al, 2013; Djodjic et al, 2004). Although examining the effects of specific land management on tile P mobilization was beyond the scope of the current study, it should be acknowledged that different management practices were used across the sites and years in the current study, including tillage and no‐till, surface broadcasting, and subsurface placement.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research targeting clay-rich agricultural sites in Ohio, Indiana, and Ontario in North America has shown substantial P loss via tile drainage, with similar concentrations in surface and subsurface discharge King et al, 2018;Plach et al, 2019). In contrast, studies in coarser-textured soils in Sweden (Andersson et al, 2013) and across Quebec (Beauchemin et al, 1998) and Ontario (Plach et al, 2018a(Plach et al, , 2019Lam et al, 2016) in Canada have shown smaller P concentrations in tile drainage relative to surface runoff. It is unclear if these apparent differences are due to differences in soil texture and geochemistry (Plach et al, 2018a), climatological variables (Maccoux et al, 2016), management practices (Duncan et al, 2017;Jarvie et al, 2017), or a combination of these factors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast, studies in coarser‐textured soils in Sweden (Andersson et al, 2013) and across Quebec (Beauchemin et al, 1998) and Ontario (Plach et al, 2018a, 2019; Lam et al, 2016) in Canada have shown smaller P concentrations in tile drainage relative to surface runoff. It is unclear if these apparent differences are due to differences in soil texture and geochemistry (Plach et al, 2018a), climatological variables (Maccoux et al, 2016), management practices (Duncan et al, 2017; Jarvie et al, 2017), or a combination of these factors. Most previous studies in agricultural systems inferred the presence of rapid surface‐tile connectivity from hydrometric data, while very few observed it directly (e.g., via dye tracing or isotopes), and work on this topic has been conducted mainly on clay‐rich soils (Stamm et al, 1998; Vidon and Cuadra, 2011; Smith et al, 2015) over very short timescales (Williams et al, 2016).…”

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confidence: 96%

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Evaluating Hydrologic Response in Tile‐Drained Landscapes: Implications for Phosphorus Transport

et al. 2019

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Phosphorus (P) loss in agricultural discharge has typically been associated with surface runoff; however, tile drains have been identified as a key P pathway due to preferential transport. Identifying when and where these pathways are active may establish high‐risk periods and regions that are vulnerable for P loss. A synthesis of high‐frequency, runoff data from eight cropped fields across the Great Lakes region of North America over a 3‐yr period showed that both surface and tile flow occurred year‐round, although tile flow occurred more frequently. The relative timing of surface and tile flow activation was classified into four response types to infer runoff‐generation processes. Response types were found to vary with season and soil texture. In most events across all sites, tile responses preceded surface flow, whereas the occurrence of surface flow prior to tile flow was uncommon. The simultaneous activation of pathways, indicating rapid connectivity through the vadose zone, was seldom observed at the loam sites but occurred at clay sites during spring and summer. Surface flow at the loam sites was often generated as saturation‐excess, a phenomenon rarely observed on the clay sites. Contrary to expectations, significant differences in P loads in tiles were not apparent under the different response types. This may be due to the frequency of the water quality sampling or may indicate that factors other than surface‐tile hydrologic connectivity drive tile P concentrations. This work provides new insight into spatial and temporal differences in runoff mechanisms in tile‐drained landscapes. Core Ideas Activation of surface runoff and tile flow differ with soil texture and season. Timing of flow path activation was used to infer hydrological processes. Connectivity between the surface and tiles exists on clay soil during growing season. Rapid connectivity between the surface and tiles occurs less frequently on loam.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 96%

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Evaluating Hydrologic Response in Tile‐Drained Landscapes: Implications for Phosphorus Transport

et al. 2019

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“…Alternatively, tile drains may increase edge‐of‐field losses of P, exacerbating water quality issues in the Red River valley. In other clayey landscapes, increased runoff and nutrient losses through tile drains have been linked to preferential flow through macropores and desiccation cracks, which are active during frozen as well as thawed conditions (Smith et al, 2015; Plach et al, 2018; Grant et al, 2019). However, this has not been assessed in the Vertisolic soils found within the Red River valley.…”

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confidence: 99%

Contribution of Overland and Tile Flow to Runoff and Nutrient Losses from Vertisols in Manitoba, Canada

et al. 2019

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This study quantified the contributions of overland and tile flow to total runoff (sum of overland and tile flow) and nutrient losses in a Vertisolic soil in the Red River valley (Manitoba, Canada), a region with a cold climate where tile drainage is rapidly expanding. Most annual runoff occurred as overland flow (72-89%), during spring snowmelt and large spring and summer storms. Tile drains did not flow in early spring due to frozen ground. Although tiles flowed in late spring and summer (33-100% of event flow), this represented a small volume of annual runoff (10-25%), which is in stark contrast with what has been observed in other tile-drained landscapes. Median daily flow-weighted mean concentrations of soluble reactive P (SRP) and total P (TP) were significantly greater in overland flow than in tile flow (p < 0.001), but the reverse pattern was observed for NO 3 -N (p < 0.001). Overland flow was the primary export pathway for both P and NO 3 -N, accounting for >95% of annual SRP and TP and 50 to 60% of annual NO 3 -N losses. Data suggest that tile drains do not exacerbate P export from Vertisols in the Red River valley because they are decoupled from the surface by soil-ice during snowmelt, which is the primary time for P loss. However, NO 3 -N loading to downstream water bodies may be exacerbated by tiles, particularly during spring and summer storms after fertilizer application.

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Legacy phosphorus concentration–discharge relationships in surface runoff and tile drainage from Ohio crop fields

Osterholz¹,

Hanrahan²,

King³

2020

J of Env Quality

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Legacy phosphorus (P) in agricultural soils can be transported to surface waters via runoff and tile drainage, where it contributes to the development of harmful and nuisance algal blooms and hypoxia. However, a limited understanding of legacy P loss dynamics impedes the identification of mitigation strategies. Edge-of-field data from 41 agricultural fields in northwestern Ohio, USA, were used to develop regressions between legacy P concentrations (C) and discharge (Q) for two P fractions: total P (TP) and dissolved reactive P (DRP). Tile drainage TP concentration (C TP ) and DRP concentration (C DRP ) both increased as Q increased, and C TP tended to increase at a greater rate than C DRP . Surface runoff showed greater variation in C-Q regressions, indicating that the response of TP and DRP to elevated Q was field specific. The relative variability of C and Q was explored using a ratio of CVs (CV C /CV Q ), which indicated that tile drainage TP and DRP losses were chemodynamic, whereas losses via surface runoff demonstrated both chemodynamic and chemostatic behavior. The chemodynamic behavior indicated that legacy P losses were strongly influenced by variation in P source availability and transport pathways. In addition, legacy P source size influenced C, as demonstrated by a positive relationship between soil-test P and the C TP and C DRP in both tile drainage and surface runoff. Progress towards legacy P mitigation will require further characterization of the drivers of variability in C TP and C DRP , including weather-, soil-, and management-related factors.Abbreviations: DRP, dissolved reactive phosphorus; EoF, edge-of-field; PP, particulate phosphorus; STP, soil-test phosphorus; TP, total phosphorus; WLEB, western Lake Erie basin. J. Environ. Qual. 2020;49:675-687.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jeq2 675

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Supply and Transport Limitations on Phosphorus Losses from Agricultural Fields in the Lower Great Lakes Region, Canada

Cited by 31 publications

References 68 publications

Evaluating Hydrologic Response in Tile‐Drained Landscapes: Implications for Phosphorus Transport

Evaluating Hydrologic Response in Tile‐Drained Landscapes: Implications for Phosphorus Transport

Contribution of Overland and Tile Flow to Runoff and Nutrient Losses from Vertisols in Manitoba, Canada

Legacy phosphorus concentration–discharge relationships in surface runoff and tile drainage from Ohio crop fields

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