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Impacts of Watershed Characteristics and Crop Rotations on Winter Cover Crop Nitrate-Nitrogen Uptake Capacity within Agricultural Watersheds in the Chesapeake Bay Region

The adoption rate of winter cover crops (WCCs) as an effective conservation management practice to help reduce agricultural nutrient loads in the Chesapeake Bay (CB) is increasing. However, the WCC potential for water quality improvement has not been fully realized at the watershed scale. This study...

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Autores principales: Lee, Sangchul, Yeo, In-Young, Sadeghi, Ali M., McCarty, Gregory W., Hively, W. Dean, Lang, Megan W.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4924834/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27352119
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157637
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author Lee, Sangchul
Yeo, In-Young
Sadeghi, Ali M.
McCarty, Gregory W.
Hively, W. Dean
Lang, Megan W.
author_facet Lee, Sangchul
Yeo, In-Young
Sadeghi, Ali M.
McCarty, Gregory W.
Hively, W. Dean
Lang, Megan W.
author_sort Lee, Sangchul
collection PubMed
description The adoption rate of winter cover crops (WCCs) as an effective conservation management practice to help reduce agricultural nutrient loads in the Chesapeake Bay (CB) is increasing. However, the WCC potential for water quality improvement has not been fully realized at the watershed scale. This study was conducted to evaluate the long-term impact of WCCs on hydrology and NO(3)-N loads in two adjacent watersheds and to identify key management factors that affect the effectiveness of WCCs using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and statistical methods. Simulation results indicated that WCCs are effective for reducing NO(3)-N loads and their performance varied based on planting date, species, soil characteristics, and crop rotations. Early-planted WCCs outperformed late-planted WCCs on the reduction of NO(3)-N loads and early-planted rye (RE) reduced NO(3)-N loads by ~49.3% compared to the baseline (no WCC). The WCCs were more effective in a watershed dominated by well-drained soils with increased reductions in NO(3)-N fluxes of ~2.5 kg N·ha(-1) delivered to streams and ~10.1 kg N·ha(-1) leached into groundwater compared to poorly-drained soils. Well-drained agricultural lands had higher transport of NO(3)-N in the soil profile and groundwater due to increased N leaching. Poorly-drained agricultural lands had lower NO(3)-N due to extensive drainage ditches and anaerobic soil conditions promoting denitrification. The performance of WCCs varied by crop rotations (i.e., continuous corn and corn-soybean), with increased N uptake following soybean crops due to the increased soil mineral N availability by mineralization of soybean residue compared to corn residue. The WCCs can reduce N leaching where baseline NO(3)-N loads are high in well-drained soils and/or when residual and mineralized N availability is high due to the cropping practices. The findings suggested that WCC implementation plans should be established in watersheds according to local edaphic and agronomic characteristics for reducing N leaching.
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spelling pubmed-49248342016-07-18 Impacts of Watershed Characteristics and Crop Rotations on Winter Cover Crop Nitrate-Nitrogen Uptake Capacity within Agricultural Watersheds in the Chesapeake Bay Region Lee, Sangchul Yeo, In-Young Sadeghi, Ali M. McCarty, Gregory W. Hively, W. Dean Lang, Megan W. PLoS One Research Article The adoption rate of winter cover crops (WCCs) as an effective conservation management practice to help reduce agricultural nutrient loads in the Chesapeake Bay (CB) is increasing. However, the WCC potential for water quality improvement has not been fully realized at the watershed scale. This study was conducted to evaluate the long-term impact of WCCs on hydrology and NO(3)-N loads in two adjacent watersheds and to identify key management factors that affect the effectiveness of WCCs using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and statistical methods. Simulation results indicated that WCCs are effective for reducing NO(3)-N loads and their performance varied based on planting date, species, soil characteristics, and crop rotations. Early-planted WCCs outperformed late-planted WCCs on the reduction of NO(3)-N loads and early-planted rye (RE) reduced NO(3)-N loads by ~49.3% compared to the baseline (no WCC). The WCCs were more effective in a watershed dominated by well-drained soils with increased reductions in NO(3)-N fluxes of ~2.5 kg N·ha(-1) delivered to streams and ~10.1 kg N·ha(-1) leached into groundwater compared to poorly-drained soils. Well-drained agricultural lands had higher transport of NO(3)-N in the soil profile and groundwater due to increased N leaching. Poorly-drained agricultural lands had lower NO(3)-N due to extensive drainage ditches and anaerobic soil conditions promoting denitrification. The performance of WCCs varied by crop rotations (i.e., continuous corn and corn-soybean), with increased N uptake following soybean crops due to the increased soil mineral N availability by mineralization of soybean residue compared to corn residue. The WCCs can reduce N leaching where baseline NO(3)-N loads are high in well-drained soils and/or when residual and mineralized N availability is high due to the cropping practices. The findings suggested that WCC implementation plans should be established in watersheds according to local edaphic and agronomic characteristics for reducing N leaching. Public Library of Science 2016-06-28 /pmc/articles/PMC4924834/ /pubmed/27352119 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157637 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) public domain dedication.
spellingShingle Research Article
Lee, Sangchul
Yeo, In-Young
Sadeghi, Ali M.
McCarty, Gregory W.
Hively, W. Dean
Lang, Megan W.
Impacts of Watershed Characteristics and Crop Rotations on Winter Cover Crop Nitrate-Nitrogen Uptake Capacity within Agricultural Watersheds in the Chesapeake Bay Region
title Impacts of Watershed Characteristics and Crop Rotations on Winter Cover Crop Nitrate-Nitrogen Uptake Capacity within Agricultural Watersheds in the Chesapeake Bay Region
title_full Impacts of Watershed Characteristics and Crop Rotations on Winter Cover Crop Nitrate-Nitrogen Uptake Capacity within Agricultural Watersheds in the Chesapeake Bay Region
title_fullStr Impacts of Watershed Characteristics and Crop Rotations on Winter Cover Crop Nitrate-Nitrogen Uptake Capacity within Agricultural Watersheds in the Chesapeake Bay Region
title_full_unstemmed Impacts of Watershed Characteristics and Crop Rotations on Winter Cover Crop Nitrate-Nitrogen Uptake Capacity within Agricultural Watersheds in the Chesapeake Bay Region
title_short Impacts of Watershed Characteristics and Crop Rotations on Winter Cover Crop Nitrate-Nitrogen Uptake Capacity within Agricultural Watersheds in the Chesapeake Bay Region
title_sort impacts of watershed characteristics and crop rotations on winter cover crop nitrate-nitrogen uptake capacity within agricultural watersheds in the chesapeake bay region
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4924834/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27352119
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157637
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