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Evaluating Innovative Nutrient Management Options and Seasonal Groundwater Recharge Dynamics in an Agricultural Source Water Protection Area
Brook;Jacqueline Marie
出版年2012
英文摘要This thesis presents two interrelated studies that consider nutrient management and seasonal changes in recharge on agricultural lands within the context of source water protection. The research focuses first on the management of the risk to groundwater quality through the implementation of various nutrient management practices and secondly considers the dynamic nature of the transport pathway to the groundwater system associated with seasonal changes in climate and hydrology. The combined results provide insight into several of the key factors influencing the protection of groundwater sources within the agricultural landscape. Field work was completed between 2009 and 2010 on an agricultural field near the City of Woodstock, Ontario. The site is located within a source water protection area; the two-year travel time zone of the Thornton Well Field which represents the primary water supply for the City of Woodstock and which has experienced chronic increases in nitrate concentrations over the last few decades. The wells are completed in glacial overburden consisting of intermingling sand and gravel till aquifers which overly a limestone bedrock aquifer. Agricultural best or beneficial management practices (BMPs) field have been implemented and monitored since 2004. The BMPs were adopted in order to reduce nitrogen losses to the aquifer, and consisted of a reduction in nitrogen fertilizer application rates over a series of agricultural fields located near the well The first study is a one year experiment designed to compare alternative nutrient management practices for corn. Combinations of fertilizer treatments with or without a legume cover crop (red clover) were assessed. The fertilizer treatments studied were: a polymer coated urea (slow-release fertilizer) applied at planting, a conventional urea applied at planting, side-dress treatment of a solution of urea and ammonium nitrate in water containing 28% nitrogen with two different application rates applied in the early summer, and a control. The legume cover crop was incorporated in the soil in the previous fall, and acts as a slow release fertilizer as nitrogen is made available to the following crop as the plants decompose. Treatments were compared based on crop yield, overall economic return, and the potential for nitrate leaching. The potential for nitrate leaching was evaluated with bi-weekly shallow soil core during the growing season, and deep soil cores taken before planting, after harvest and the following spring. The deep cores allowed changes in nitrate storage below the rooting zone to be assessed. The results of this study highlight the importance of timing of fertilizer applications and rate of fertilizer applications. Treatments which provide a delay in the release or application of fertilizer, the polymer-coated urea, the calculator-rate side-dress and the clover cover crop, were found to be advantageous. The polymer-coated urea treatments and side-dress treatments were found to reduce leaching compared to the conventional urea treatment. Treatments with the clover cover crops were not found to reduce crop yields or increase leaching potential, and lower fertilizer costs associated to this practice were found to have a positive economic effect. Plots treated with the high-rate side-dress fertilizer application lost more nitrate to the subsurface compared to the other treatment options, and an economic disadvantage was observed as yields did not compensate for higher fertilizer costs. The study highlights the advantages of the different treatments under study, which may be used to inform policy makers and farmers in the selection of economically and environmentally sustainable nutrient management BMP options. Groundwater monitoring at the site over the years has indentified interesting recharge dynamics, particularly in the vicinity of an ephemeral stream which develops annually during spring and winter melt events in a low lying area of the study site. It w
英文关键词Green manure Slow release fertilizer Polymer-coated urea Nitrate Hydrus 1-D One-dimensional model Heat transport Ephemeral stream Corn Groundwater recharge Earth Sciences
语种英语
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/10012/7070
资源类型学位论文
条目标识符http://119.78.100.177/qdio/handle/2XILL650/246861
推荐引用方式
GB/T 7714
Brook;Jacqueline Marie. Evaluating Innovative Nutrient Management Options and Seasonal Groundwater Recharge Dynamics in an Agricultural Source Water Protection Area[D],2012.
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