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TECHNICAL REPORTS

Waste Management

Residual Effects of Compost and Plowing on Phosphorus and Sediment in Runoff

Dep. of Agronomy and Horticulture, 279 Plant Science, Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68583-0915. Contribution of the Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln Agricultural Research Division. This research was partly funded by the Hatch Act

^* Corresponding author (cwortmann2{at}unl.edu).

Received for publication September 26, 2006. Manure application can lead to excessive soil test P levels in surface soil, which can contribute to increased P concentration in runoff. However, manure application often results in reduced runoff and sediment loss. Research was conducted to determine the residual effects of previously applied compost, plowing of soil with excessive soil test P, and application of additional compost after plowing on volume of runoff and loss of sediment and P in runoff. The research was conducted in 2004 and 2005 under natural rainfall events with plots of 11-m length where low-P and high-P compost had been applied during April 1998 to January 2001. During this initial application period, Bray-P1 in the surface 5-cm of depth was increased from 14 to 553 mg kg^–1 for the high-P compost. Inversion plowing in the spring of 2004 greatly decreased P levels in the surface soil and over the following year reduced runoff by 35% and total P losses by 51% compared with the unplowed compost treatments. Sediment loss was increased with plowing compared with the unplowed compost applied treatments but less than with the no-compost treatment. The application of additional compost after plowing increased surface soil P and dissolved reactive P (DRP) in runoff but did not increase particulate P in runoff. Unplowed compost-amended soil continued to reduce sediment loss but exhibited increased DRP loss even 5 yr after the last application. Plowing to invert excessively high-P surface soil was effective in reducing runoff and DRP loss.

Abbreviations: DRP, dissolved reactive P in filtered runoff • PP, particulate P • RC, treatment with residual compost but left unplowed • RC-P04, treatment with residual compost and plowed in 2004 • RC-P04-C05, treatment with residual compost plowed in 2004 with additional compost applied in 2005 • TP, total P in unfiltered runoff