You might be thinking, “Why Ag Runoff Management?” Or, “Why does runoff need to be managed, and why agricultural runoff in particular?”
The answer: Nutrients – excess nutrients to be specific.
You might be thinking, “Why Ag Runoff Management?” Or, “Why does runoff need to be managed and why agricultural runoff in particular?”
The answer: Nutrients – excess nutrients to be specific.
In a natural environment, some key chemical components for life are often limited. In particular, Nitrogen and Phosphorus are normally in relatively short supply in natural systems and because of this, they tend to act as controls on natural growth… plants and animals can only grow as long as those components are available. In our modern world, we have developed techniques for providing these components on an industrial scale. In 1910, the development of the Haber-Bosch manufacturing process provided a means of creating plant-usable forms of nitrogen from atmospheric gas, and phosphorus is mined on large scales.
While these developments have certainly allowed for more intensive farming -- making it possible to grow food for more and more people -- significant amounts of these compounds are being transported into the natural environment, largely by run-off. Excessive irrigation and heavy rains can create water flows that carry unused nutrients from crop fields and animal wastes into local streams, rivers and lakes, often with quite negative consequences.
Once these compounds end up in natural systems – particularly water based systems -- it makes uncontrolled growth possible. Results can include the development of lake-clogging algae mats, toxic algae blooms, and anoxic zones -- areas where no oxygen is available in the water column. Since most life depends on oxygen availability, lack of oxygen makes life impossible in those zones and can result in massive die-offs of the plants and animals that would normally live there. This is now occurring on a regular basis at most major river outlets to the ocean
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in July 2017 the anoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico (from nutrients carried by the Mississippi River) covered 8,776 square miles, an area the size of New Jersey [4]. In these zones the die-offs of aquatic life can seriously affect both commercial fisheries and natural ecosystems.
One major contributor to excess nutrients in waterways can be agricultural activities. Nutrients can be washed off fields by heavy rains or flushed through the soil to groundwater by excessive irrigation. They can also be contributed from inadequate management of livestock manures.
The big question: What if these nutrient sources could be intercepted, at minimum, and possibly re-used, at best?
This is the goal of the research behind Ag Runoff Management. This blog site is intended to be a resource for anyone with an interest – both those in the agriculture industry and those in the public at large.
Please join in -- ask questions, share thoughts and ideas!
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