A study of mole drainage with simplified cultivation for autumn-sown crops on a clay soil. 5. Losses of nitrate-N in surface run-off and drain water |
| |
Authors: | R J Dowdell P Colbourn and R Q Cannell |
| |
Institution: | Agricultural and Food Research Council Letcombe Laboratory, Wantage, Oxon, OX12 9JT, Gt. Britain |
| |
Abstract: | Direct drilling of autumn-sown cereal crops reduced the loss of nitrate in drainage. Losses of nitrate nitrogen in water draining from arable land have been measured for 4 seasons, 1980–1984. The field experiment was on a mole-drained clay soil in southern England. Autumn-sown cereal crops were established by direct drilling or after ploughing and traditional seed-bed preparation. Losses ranged from 3 to 75 kg N ha?1 year?1, with an average of 34 kg N ha?1 year?1. Most of the loss (about 90%) was removed via the mole-drain system. Measured loss of nitrate from the direct-drilled soil was 76% (range 48–89%) of that lost from the ploughed soil. Mole drains apparently increased loss of nitrate directly to the river system. In the absence of mole drains, nitrate loss in surface drainage averaged 6 kg N ha?1, compared with 4 kg N ha?1 in the presence of drains. However, in one year, exceptionally high amounts of nitrate (80 kg N ha?1) were lost from undrained, direct-drilled land because of poor crop establishment; deep leaching of nitrate in the undrained soil was not measured. Approximate calculations show that up to half the autumn-applied fertiliser-N was lost by leaching and up to 15% of spring applications. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录! |
|