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Reducing Nitrogen Loss with Managed Drainage and Polymer‐Coated Urea
Author(s) -
Nash Patrick,
Nelson Kelly,
Motavalli Peter
Publication year - 2015
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/jeq2014.05.0238
Subject(s) - tile drainage , drainage , leaching (pedology) , fertilizer , environmental science , soil water , tile , nitrogen , agronomy , hydrology (agriculture) , chemistry , soil science , geology , biology , ecology , materials science , geotechnical engineering , organic chemistry , composite material
Continuous corn ( Zea mays L.) production during dry years combined with high N fertilizer rates can have a high potential for NO 3 − –N loss through tile drainage water. Claypan soils can further increase the potential for NO 3 − –N loss through tile drainage water due to the claypan layer that restricts N leaching below the tile drains. The objective of this 4‐yr study was to determine whether use of managed subsurface drainage (MD) in combination with a controlled‐release N fertilizer could reduce the annual amount of NO 3 − –N loss through tile drainage water compared with free subsurface tile drainage (FD) with a noncoated urea application. Due to dry conditions over the summer and fall months, MD reduced the annual amount of water drained by at least 73% compared with FD in two of the four crop years. Low N loss and reduced corn N uptake possibly resulted in carry‐over N and high soil N concentrations throughout the study, which may have limited the effect of N fertilizer source on annual NO 3 − –N loss in the tile drainage water. Use of MD reduced annual NO 3 − –N loss in the tile drainage water by 78 to 85% in two of the four years. High NO 3 − –N loss reduction with MD compared with FD was largely due to dry growing season conditions in combination with wet conditions over the noncropping period.