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Many Practices Can Reduce Nitrate Losses from Fields, but Social Constraints Make Implementation Difficult
Author(s) -
John Doe
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
csa news
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2325-3584
pISSN - 1529-9163
DOI - 10.2134/csa2015-60-1-4
Subject(s) - nitrate , environmental planning , risk analysis (engineering) , business , environmental science , environmental economics , computer science , environmental resource management , economics , chemistry , organic chemistry
14 CSA News January 2015 Watersheds in the upper Midwest Corn Belt are flat and extensively tile-drained, producing high yields of corn and soybeans on greater than 90% of the land. Corn production requires large inputs of nitrogen fertilizer, and there are extensive periods with no plant roots to take up available nitrate. Therefore, precipitation events during late fall through early summer lead to large losses of nitrate, typically about 20 to 30 kg N–1 ha–1 yr–1. This nitrate is transported down the Mississippi River system and contributes to the hypoxic zone that forms each summer in the Gulf of Mexico. These watersheds are the focus of many federal and state programs to reduce these tile nitrate losses, with little success to this point.