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Drainage Control to Diminish Nitrate Loss from Agricultural Fields¹

ABSTRACT

In an attempt to reduce NO₃^–-N movement to drainage waters, flashboard riser-type water level control structures were installed in tile mains or outlet ditches at two locations to raise the water table to increase denitrification during the winter. A large reduction in NO₃^–-N movement through tile lines occurred (from 25–40 to 1–7 kg/ha) in moderately well-drained soils because of reduction in effluent volume. In the moderately well-drained soils, there was no indication of increased denitrification in the field. In poorly drained soils, drainage control had no influence upon soil profile oxidation-reduction potentials but resulted in approximately.a 50% reduction in NO₃^– movement through drainage ditches. This reduction was due to increased water movement into and through deeper soil horizons (below 1 m). The NO₃^–-N concentrations and low Eh values in all profiles below 1 m indicate that the NO₃^– which moved to this depth underwent denitrification.

Key Words: water table • tile mains • soil profile • denitrification

¹ Paper no. 5634 of the J. Ser. of the North Carolina Agric. Exp. Stn., Raleigh, NC 27607. The work upon which this publication is based was supported in part by funds provided by the Office of Water Resour. Res., Inst. of the Univ. of North Carolina, as authorized under the Water Resources Act of 1964.

² Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor, respectively, Soil Sci. Dep., North Carolina State Univ.

Received for publication May 10, 1978.

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