Polyacrylamide (PAM) for irrigation runoff management

Sojka, R.E. and Lentz, R.D. and Entry, J.A. and Bjorneberg, D.L. and Morishita, D. (2007) Polyacrylamide (PAM) for irrigation runoff management. pp. 436-450. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on the Future of Agriculture, Science, Stewardship and Sustainability. USA-CA-Sacramento, 2006/08/07-09.

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Abstract

Nearly two million U.S. irrigated acres safely use PAM for erosion control, water quality
protection, and infiltration management, preventing 20 million tons of soil loss annually.
Nutrients, pesticides, chemical oxygen demand, weed seeds, and pathogens in runoff from
PAM-treated irrigation are greatly reduced. Typical annual PAM application amounts are <
10 kg ha-1 . At these rates, infiltration is improved on medium to fine-textured soils. PAM
applied at recommended rates has little or no effect on soil microflora and microfauna. Field
research has shown that applications of up to 5.4 ton ha -1 active ingredient (a.i.) of PAM have
only modest effects on soil microflora numbers and function and that PAM degrades at a rate
of at least 9.8% y-1 . Key points of PAM technology are presented.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
NWISRL Publication Number:	1215
Subjects:	Irrigation > Furrow irrigation > Runoff losses Polyacrylamide (PAM) > Water-soluble PAM (WSPAM) > Runoff Mass Import - autoclassified (may be erroneous)
Depositing User:	Users 6 not found.
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2010 21:56
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2016 14:59
Item ID:	963
URI:	https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/963