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ARS Home » Midwest Area » West Lafayette, Indiana » National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #209013
Title: Gypsum soil amendment as a management practice in no-till to improve water quality.

Author
item Norton, Lloyd

Submitted to: Soil and Water Conservation Society
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/1/2007
Publication Date: 7/21/2007
Citation: Norton, L.D. 2007. Gypsum soil amendment as a management practice in no-till to improve water quality. Soil and Water Conservation Society 2007 Final Program and Abstract Book. Soil and Water Conservation Society, Ankeny, IA. p. 136.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: No-tillage agriculture has been promoted as a viable means of controlling soil erosion in many regions of the USA. In no-tillage, manures are largely surface applied and soluble forms of nutrients can easily be removed by water during a runoff event. Gypsum has been shown to improve infiltration in cultivated soil by improving infiltration and reducing runoff volume. Recent studies have also shown that gypsum application can reduce the concentration of soluble reactive phosphorous (SRP) in both no-till and tilled land. We conducted a two year study to evaluate the effectiveness of gypsum as a soil amendment in reducing both nutrient and herbicide losses from no-tilled corn plots with surface applied poultry litter in the St. Joseph River watershed. Rainfall simulator experiments were conducted on 1m x 6m long plots on Blount loam soils planted to glyphosate tolerant corn with 5% slope. A 40 mm/hr rainfall event was applied to triplicated plots with corn clipped to removed canopy effects with either: no treatment, 1 dry MT/ha poultry litter surface applied, and 1 dry MT/ha poultry litter plus 1MT/ha recycled wall-board gypsum both surface applied until steady state runoff (infiltration) was achieved. Samples for runoff volume, sediment concentration, nutrients (N and P in solution) and atrazine were collected every five minutes. Samples were analyzed by standard laboratory techniques at the National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory. Total losses of each variable were computed and normalized for measured rainfall intentisty and storm duration. Mean differences of measured variables determined using SAS Proc GLM and Turkey’s Studentized Range Test at P=0.05. In this paper, mean differences will be presented and implications to watershed water quality will be discussed.