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TECHNICAL REPORTS

Surface Water Quality

Mitigation Options for Sediment and Phosphorus Loss from Winter-sown Arable Crops

^a Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster Univ., Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK
^b ADAS Wolverhampton, Wergs Rd., Wolverhampton, WV6 8TQ, UK
^c Dep. of Agriculture, Univ. of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AR, UK
^d Dep. of Life Sciences, The Open Univ., Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK

^* Corresponding author (c.deasy{at}lancaster.ac.uk).

Received for publication January 20, 2009. Sediment and P inputs to freshwaters from agriculture are a major problem in the United Kingdom (UK). This study investigated mitigation options for diffuse pollution losses from arable land. Field trials were undertaken at the hillslope scale over three winters at three UK sites with silt (Oxyaquic Hapludalf), sand (Udic Haplustept), and clay (Typic Haplaquept) soils. None of the mitigation treatments was effective in every year trialled, but each showed overall average reductions in losses. Over five site years, breaking up the compaction in tramlines (tractor wheel tracks) using a tine reduced losses of sediment and P to losses similar to those observed from areas without tramlines, with an average reduction in P loss of 1.06 kg TP ha^–1. Compared to traditional plowing, TP losses under minimum tillage were reduced by 0.30 kg TP ha^–1 over five site years, TP losses under contour cultivation were reduced by 0.30 kg TP ha^–1 over two site years, and TP losses using in-field barriers were reduced by 0.24 kg TP ha^–1 over two site years. In one site year, reductions in losses due to crop residue incorporation were not significant. Each of the mitigation options trialled is associated with a small cost at the farm-scale of up to £5 ha^–1, or with cost savings. The results indicate that each of the treatments has the potential to be a cost-effective mitigation option, but that tramline management is the most promising treatment, because tramlines dominate sediment and P transfer in surface runoff from arable hillslopes.

Abbreviations: B, barley • VB, vegetative barrier • CC, contour cultivation • DTL, disrupted tramline • MD, mixed direction cultivation • MT, minimum tillage • N, nitrogen • O, oats • P, phosphorus • PL, plow • SB, straw baled and removed • R, straw residue incorporation • SS, suspended sediment • TL, tramline (tractor wheel track) • TP, total phosphorus • UD, up-down slope cultivation • W, wheat • WFD, Water Framework Directive