Within-furrow Erosion and Deposition of Sediment and Phosphorus

Brown, Melvin J. (1985) Within-furrow Erosion and Deposition of Sediment and Phosphorus. In: El-Swaify, S.A. and Moldenhauer, W.C. and Low, Andrew, (eds.) Soil Erosion and Conservation. pp. 113-118. Soil Cons. Soc. Amer., Ankeny, Iowa.

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Abstract

Sediment, an end product of soil erosion, hampers irrigation, pollutes
rivers, and is an economic loss to farmers and a resource loss to the nations
of the world. Slope, soil condition, stream-size, and the cropping system
are important factors that govern both within-field erosion and sediment
loss from a field.

Under present management systems, irrigation drainage streams continually
load sediment into streams and rivers. Technology needs to be
developed to reduce or eliminate sediments and absorbed nutrients from
surface irrigation return flows. Robbins and Carter (3) reported that
small sediment retention ponds could remove 80 to 95 percent of the suspended
sediments from surface drainage water.

Soil erosion damages both the area from which the soil is eroded and
the area where sediment is deposited. Large amounts of sediment may be
carried from irrigation fields. Brown and associates (1) reported sediment
concentrations in surface irrigation return flows ranging from 20 to
15,000 mg/l. Carter and associates (2) found that phosphorus (P) can be
conserved by removing sediment from irrigation return flow. They found
higher P concentrations on smaller particles and aggregates than on larger
particles and aggregates. For example, 550, 1,150, and 1,285 mg/liter
total P were attached to the sand, silt, and clay fraction, respectively.

Item Type:	Book Section
NWISRL Publication Number:	0558
Subjects:	Irrigation > Furrow irrigation > Erosion Irrigation > Furrow irrigation > Runoff losses > Sediment Soil > Erosion Mass Import - autoclassified (may be erroneous)
Depositing User:	Dan Stieneke
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2010 21:55
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2017 17:05
Item ID:	765
URI:	https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/765