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Delivery of Nonpoint‐Source Phosphorus from Cultivated Mucklands to Lake Ontario
Author(s) -
Longabucco Patricia,
Rafferty Michael R.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of environmental quality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.888
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1537-2537
pISSN - 0047-2425
DOI - 10.2134/jeq1989.00472425001800020005x
Subject(s) - surface runoff , snowmelt , environmental science , hydrology (agriculture) , orchard , muck , phosphorus , watershed , nonpoint source pollution , drainage , precipitation , soil water , ecology , geology , geography , soil science , materials science , geotechnical engineering , machine learning , meteorology , computer science , metallurgy , biology
Cultivated mucklands (Histosols) in western New York State were investigated as a nonpoint source of P to Lake Ontario. The 70 500‐ha Oak Orchard Creek watershed, which contains 3250 ha of heavily fertilized muck cropland, was monitored at several sites for a year in order to construct a P budget for the system and determine the mucklands' relative contribution. Runoff during the late winter‐early spring period appears to be the most important hydrologic factor in governing annual phosphorus loading from the mucklands, greater than either total precipitation or total runoff for the year. Surplus P leached from muckland soils and delivered to the creek in subsurface runoff accounts for the large dissolved P load measured in the creek at the study site draining the muck cropland. At this stream monitoring location, the mucklands represented only 27% of the drainage area, but were estimated to contribute between 55 and 86% of the annual dissolved reactive P (DRP) load. The load from Oak Orchard Creek to Lake Ontario for the study period was 37 000 kg of total P (TP), 20 000 kg of which was DRP. Half of the P load was delivered to Lake Ontario in 3 months—March, April, and May—when rain and snowmelt produced significant runoff and high creek flows. A mass balance calculation suggests that as much as 72% of the DRP load and 39% of the TP load entering Lake Ontario from Oak Orchard Creek could be attributed to P losses from the cultivated mucklands located 65 km upstream.