The leaching potential as a land quality of two Dutch soils under current and potential management conditions

Within the field of land evaluation, crop productivity as well as environmental effects should be investigated for specific land use types. The leaching potential is introduced as an environmental land quality and is expressed in terms of a downward flux from the root zone. The frequency distribution and the amount of this downward flux were calculated for each period of the year using the SWANY model, which simulates soil water flow, evapotranspiration and crop growth. Two examples for the use of this land quality are presented for potato production under different irrigation regimes on a coarse-textured Humic Podzol and under different groundwater control regimes on a median-textured Calcaric Fluvisol in the Netherlands.

The simulation results showed that irrigation increases crop yields for the Humic Podzol, but also increases the leaching potential. Restricted irrigation resulted in similar crop production levels, but in only part of the additional downward flux from the root zone. For the Calcaric Fluvisol, drainage provided higher crop yields and a slightly lower leaching potential due to an increase in crop uptake.