Reduction of Nitrate Leaching and Threats to Surface Water Under Conservation Tillage
Authors: Masri Zuhair , Asher Jeremiah , Piwarski Jason R. 
Published: May 2024

Highlights

Conservation agriculture practice (NT) improved soil organic matter, a principal indicator of soil health, soil health score (SHS) and CO2 respiration, and other soil physical and chemical properties vs. conventional till (CT) practice.

Conservation agriculture practice (NT) promoted soil health functions under sufficient precipitation distribution and ample temperature conditions and aided the soil's retention ability to resist nitrate leaching and loads in subsurface drainage discharge systems.

Uneven weather conditions, drought, and other variable agronomic practices rendered soil conditions unfavorable to retain nitrate and induced adverse effects by increasing the nitrate leaching and loads in NT vs. CT.

The limited experiment period presented significant challenges for the evaluation and synthesizing of soil health motivations and barriers in the NT vs. CT.

Abstract. An edge-of-field subsurface drainage discharge system removes excess subsurface water from agricultural fields to improve the conditions of the soil system making them favorable for plant growth. Conversely, edge-of-fields can increase the nitrate (NO3
-) offsite movement to surface water bodies, which ultimately impacts water quality. In St. Johns, MI. Two on-farm large areas were initiated in 2013 for conservation (NT) and conventional till (CT) practices, of which two microscale fields, an area of 4 acres for each, were delineated in 2019 for NT and CT practices under a corn/soybean crop rotation. NT and CT fields were monitored and evaluated through full water years (WYs) 2019-2022. The objective was to use an innovative approach in coupling edge-of-field with soil health assessments to learn how improved soil health functions are influencing nitrate leaching and loads. NT practice enhanced SOM, other physical properties, and soil health parameters, promoting soil health functions compared to CT practice under conditions of adequate precipitation and favorable temperatures. Additionally, it improved the soil's ability to retain and resist nitrate loads in the 2020 water year, with reductions of 9.6 and 18.3 kg/ha, respectively. In 2021, WY nitrate loads reported nearly an equal value in NT vs. CT (4.8 and 4.4 kg/ha, respectively). Factors of uneven weather conditions and drought, variable agronomic practices, and residual nitrogen after corn, rendered soil conditions unfavorable to retain nitrate and induced adverse effects by increasing the nitrate leaching and loads in NT vs CT in 2022 WY (8.1 and 5.8 kg/h, respectively). Therefore, the limited evaluation period (2019-2022 WYs) presented significant challenges and revealed no affirmative evidence that the improved soil health functions under NT reduced the nitrate leaching loads in all WYs of this research. Further research is needed to prove the impact of NT on improving soil health functions to sustainably reduce nitrate leaching and loads in edge-of-fields. Keywords: Conservation no-till (NT), Conventional till (CT), Nitrate load, Soil health functions, Subsurface drainage discharge, Water quality.