Abstract
Excess nutrient loading to downstream waters has been a persistent
environmental concern, especially in agricultural settings. Drainage
water management (DWM) is a best management practice intended to reduce
nitrogen export from fertilized lands by increasing groundwater levels,
slowing the loss of nutrient-rich water and increasing its time in
contact with the soil, thus creating greater opportunity for
denitrification. This BMP has shown to be effective at reducing
dissolved nitrate (TDN) export, but a question remains about potential
unintended pollution swapping. The concern is that denitrification could
result in nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions and that higher soil moisture
could also create suitable conditions for methanogenesis and methane
(CH4) emissions. Here we report on two years of monthly static soil gas
chamber fluxes and hydrologic nutrient fluxes during a full corn/soybean
rotation cycle on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. For N2O, there were
significant interactions between season, crop type, and treatment, such
as higher fluxes during the fertilization period in the corn year in the
DWM treatment, which was consistent with our concern about pollution
swapping. However, this brief additional pulse of N2O did not result in
a statistically significant increase at an annual scale, nor was there
an increase in annual CH4 emissions. At the same time, annual TDN load
was significantly lower in the DWM ditches compared to the control. With
no significant treatment effect on soil gas fluxes and a significant
treatment effect on TDN export, we conclude that pollution swapping of
nitrate reduction for greenhouse gases did not occur significantly in
this application of DWM to a corn/soybean system. We did, however, find
evidence of pollution swapping of phosphorus and nitrogen, as total
phosphorus load was higher in the DWM. With more water in the field, the
reduced conditions appear to cause a release of soil bound phosphorus.
While greenhouse gas production may not be as much of a concern,
increased phosphorus export represents a form of pollution swapping that
must be accounted for in determining the value of this BMP.