Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have caused water quality
concerns in many rural watersheds, sometimes forcing the State of Texas to conduct
Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) assessments of stream nutrients such as nitrogen
(N) and phosphorus (P). One suggested Best Management Practice (BMP) is the export
of phosphorus (P) through turfgrass sod produced with composted dairy manure from an
impaired rural watershed to an urban watershed. The manure-grown sod releases P
slowly and would not require additional P fertilizer for up to 20 years in the receiving
watershed. This would eliminate P application to the sod and improve the water quality
of urban streams.
The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to model a typical
suburban watershed that would receive the transplanted sod. The objective of the
modeling was to determine the water quality changes due to the import of sod
transplanted from turf fields and grown with composted dairy manure. The SWAT model
was calibrated to simulate historical flow and sediment and nutrient loading to Mary's
Creek. The total P stream loading to Mary's Creek was lower when manure-grown sod
was imported instead of commercial sod grown with inorganic fertilizers. Yet, flow,
sediment yield, and total N yield increased equally for both cases at the watershed outlet.
The SWAT simulations indicate that a turfgrass BMP can be used effectively to import
manure P into an urban watershed and reduce in-stream P levels when compared to sod
grown with inorganic fertilizers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/1427 |
| Date | 17 February 2005 |
| Creators | Richards, Chad Edward |
| Contributors | Munster, Clyde |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 703688 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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