IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v131y2014icp79-86.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effectiveness of low-grade weirs for nutrient removal in an agricultural landscape in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley

Author

Listed:
  • Littlejohn, K.A.
  • Poganski, B.H.
  • Kröger, R.
  • Ramirez-Avila, J.J.

Abstract

New best management practices (BMPs) are needed to provide enhanced water quality improvements to downstream aquatic systems from agricultural landscapes. In Mississippi, a simple process of controlled surface drainage is being advocated in drainage ditches within agricultural landscapes. Low-grade weirs (hereafter called “weirs”) are low, check-dam structures where water is held in drainage ditches at multiple locations. This spatial arrangement of controlled drainage results in increases in hydraulic residence time, decreases in flow velocities at multiple locations, and potential decreases in nutrient concentrations and sediment loads. This study was the first field-scale evaluation of weirs toward storm event nutrient (nitrate – NO3−, nitrite – NO2−, ammonia – NH3, dissolved inorganic P and total inorganic P) removal within a single ditch, Terrace, over an 18-month period. Individual sites within Terrace were monitored on rising and falling limbs of the storm hydrograph for changes in nutrient concentrations. A Hydrologic Engineering Centers River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) model was setup to calculate load derivations and differences. Overall there were very few statistical differences (P>0.05) between inflow and outflow concentrations due to their nascent variability in concentration between seasons, hydrology and runoff volume. However, median mass kg/ha as well as percentage nutrient (NH3, NO2−, dissolved inorganic P, and total inorganic P) load reductions were positive ranging from 14% (dissolved inorganic P) to 67% (NH3 and NO2−), with the exception of a median percent increase in NO3− load from inflow to outflow, likely resulting from the influence of two outlying storm events. Results indicate that at the field scale, weirs within a ubiquitous landscape feature such as an agricultural drainage ditch can reduce nutrient loads moving downstream. Weirs could be considered a viable BMP in agricultural landscapes aiming to control surface nutrient runoff; however, additional research of nitrogen dynamics is warranted to ensure their efficacy.

Suggested Citation

  • Littlejohn, K.A. & Poganski, B.H. & Kröger, R. & Ramirez-Avila, J.J., 2014. "Effectiveness of low-grade weirs for nutrient removal in an agricultural landscape in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 79-86.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:131:y:2014:i:c:p:79-86
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2013.09.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377413002424
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2013.09.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kröger, R. & Cooper, C.M. & Moore, M.T., 2008. "A preliminary study of an alternative controlled drainage strategy in surface drainage ditches: Low-grade weirs," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(6), pages 678-684, June.
    2. Wesstrom, Ingrid & Messing, Ingmar & Linner, Harry & Lindstrom, Jan, 2001. "Controlled drainage -- effects on drain outflow and water quality," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 85-100, March.
    3. Wesstrom, Ingrid & Messing, Ingmar, 2007. "Effects of controlled drainage on N and P losses and N dynamics in a loamy sand with spring crops," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 229-240, February.
    4. Lalonde, V. & Madramootoo, C. A. & Trenholm, L. & Broughton, R. S., 1996. "Effects of controlled drainage on nitrate concentrations in subsurface drain discharge," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 187-199, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jia, Z. & Yin, X. & Luo, W. & Zou, J. & Chen, C., 2021. "New indexes to evaluate the effect of segmental variations of distributed ditches on their pollutant retention in agricultural landscapes," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    2. Prince Czarnecki, J.M. & Baker, B.H. & Brison, A.M. & Kröger, R., 2014. "Evaluating flood risk and alterations to hydraulic patterns following installation of low-grade weirs in agricultural systems," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 69-74.
    3. Sunohara, Mark D. & Gottschall, Natalie & Craiovan, Emilia & Wilkes, Graham & Topp, Edward & Frey, Steven K. & Lapen, David R., 2016. "Controlling tile drainage during the growing season in Eastern Canada to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and bacteria loading to surface water," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 159-170.
    4. Zhang, Jian & Yan, Min & Lu, Xin & Wang, Tao, 2024. "Nutrient removal performance from agricultural drainage by strengthening ecological ditches in hilly areas," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    5. Pérez-Gutiérrez, Juan D. & Paz, Joel O. & Tagert, Mary Love M., 2017. "Seasonal water quality changes in on-farm water storage systems in a south-central U.S. agricultural watershed," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 131-139.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bohne, B. & Storchenegger, I.J. & Widmoser, P., 2012. "An easy to use calculation method for weir operations in controlled drainage systems," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 46-53.
    2. Shokrana, Md Sami Bin & Ghane, Ehsan & Abdalaal, Yousef & Nejadhashemi, A. Pouyan, 2023. "Predicting the effect of weir management on the discharge of a controlled drainage system in a changing climate," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 289(C).
    3. Kröger, R. & Cooper, C.M. & Moore, M.T., 2008. "A preliminary study of an alternative controlled drainage strategy in surface drainage ditches: Low-grade weirs," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(6), pages 678-684, June.
    4. Tolomio, Massimo & Borin, Maurizio, 2018. "Water table management to save water and reduce nutrient losses from agricultural fields: 6 years of experience in North-Eastern Italy," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 1-10.
    5. Williams, M.R. & King, K.W. & Fausey, N.R., 2015. "Drainage water management effects on tile discharge and water quality," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 43-51.
    6. Wang, Zhiyu & Shao, Guangcheng & Lu, Jia & Zhang, Kun & Gao, Yang & Ding, Jihui, 2020. "Effects of controlled drainage on crop yield, drainage water quantity and quality: A meta-analysis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    7. Salazar, Osvaldo & Wesström, Ingrid & Youssef, Mohamed A. & Skaggs, R. Wayne & Joel, Abraham, 2009. "Evaluation of the DRAINMOD-N II model for predicting nitrogen losses in a loamy sand under cultivation in south-east Sweden," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 267-281, February.
    8. Lavaire, Tito & Gentry, Lowell E. & David, Mark B. & Cooke, Richard A., 2017. "Fate of water and nitrate using drainage water management on tile systems in east-central Illinois," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 218-228.
    9. King, K.W. & Hanrahan, B.R. & Stinner, J. & Shedekar, V.S., 2022. "Field scale discharge and water quality response, to drainage water management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    10. Gunn, Kpoti M. & Fausey, Norman R. & Shang, Yuhui & Shedekar, Vinayak S. & Ghane, Ehsan & Wahl, Mark D. & Brown, Larry C., 2015. "Subsurface drainage volume reduction with drainage water management: Case studies in Ohio, USA," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 131-142.
    11. Tolomio, Massimo & Borin, Maurizio, 2019. "Controlled drainage and crop production in a long-term experiment in North-Eastern Italy," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 21-29.
    12. Cicek, H. & Sunohara, M. & Wilkes, G. & McNairn, H. & Pick, F. & Topp, E. & Lapen, D.R., 2010. "Using vegetation indices from satellite remote sensing to assess corn and soybean response to controlled tile drainage," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 261-270, December.
    13. Jouni, Hamidreza Javani & Liaghat, Abdolmajid & Hassanoghli, Alireza & Henk, Ritzema, 2018. "Managing controlled drainage in irrigated farmers’ fields: A case study in the Moghan plain, Iran," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 393-405.
    14. Wesstrom, Ingrid & Messing, Ingmar, 2007. "Effects of controlled drainage on N and P losses and N dynamics in a loamy sand with spring crops," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 229-240, February.
    15. He, Yupu & Jianyun, Zhang & Shihong, Yang & Dalin, Hong & Junzeng, Xu, 2019. "Effect of controlled drainage on nitrogen losses from controlled irrigation paddy fields through subsurface drainage and ammonia volatilization after fertilization," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 231-237.
    16. Deichmann, Majken M. & Andersen, Mathias N. & Thomsen, Ingrid K. & Børgesen, Christen D., 2019. "Impacts of controlled drainage during winter on the physiology and yield of winter wheat in Denmark," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 118-126.
    17. Ross, Jared A. & Herbert, Matthew E. & Sowa, Scott P. & Frankenberger, Jane R. & King, Kevin W. & Christopher, Sheila F. & Tank, Jennifer L. & Arnold, Jeffrey G. & White, Mike J. & Yen, Haw, 2016. "A synthesis and comparative evaluation of factors influencing the effectiveness of drainage water management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 366-376.
    18. Barbara Kęsicka & Rafał Stasik & Michał Kozłowski & Adam Choryński, 2023. "Is Controlled Drainage of Agricultural Land a Common Used Practice?—A Bibliographic Analysis," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-17, September.
    19. Wesstrom, Ingrid & Messing, Ingmar & Linner, Harry & Lindstrom, Jan, 2001. "Controlled drainage -- effects on drain outflow and water quality," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 85-100, March.
    20. Bou Lahdou, Guy & Bowling, Laura & Frankenberger, Jane & Kladivko, Eileen, 2019. "Hydrologic controls of controlled and free draining subsurface drainage systems," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 605-615.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:131:y:2014:i:c:p:79-86. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.