Date of Award
8-1-2024
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Forestry
First Advisor
Schoonover, Jon
Abstract
Best Management Practices (BMPs) are conservation practices designed by Natural Resource Conservation Service to help mitigate erosion and nutrient losses in agriculture. Water and Sediment Control Basins (WASCoBs) are BMPs implemented in agriculture fields with sloping topography that are susceptible to erosion to help reduce sediment and nutrient losses. There is little research examining the water quality impacts of WASCoBs and their ability to decrease nutrients in water runoff. Runoff samples were collected following intense rain events in seven basins and analyzed for total suspended soils (TSS), total phosphorus, dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP), ammonium-nitrogen, and nitrate-nitrogen. Nutrient and sediment concentrations and discharge measurements were used to determine event loads for each basin. The WASCoBs trapped an average of 63.4% of TSS, 30.5% of total phosphorus, 15.3% of DRP, 21.8% of ammonium-nitrogen, and 62.9% of nitrate-nitrogen. An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was used to estimate sedimentation rates and proved to be less effective for annual sediment estimates, but perhaps more accurate on a multi-year basis. A detailed soil assessment was performed on all thirty-two basins to estimate short-term legacy phosphorus accumulation. The thirty-two basins trapped an average of 5,403.0 kg/ha of sediment and 16.8 kg/ha of phosphorus. An average of 22 mg kg-1 of total phosphorus accumulated across the basins in one year of sediment accumulation. Potential crop yield penalty was investigated to see the impact between inside the basins compared to the surrounding area. Corn had a decrease of 5.1% yield and soybeans had a decrease of 36.9% in yield inside the basins.
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