The goal of the study was to model water quality impacts of growing perennial grasses on marginal soils. The GLEAMS-NAPRA and RUSLE models were used to simulate long-term surface runoff, percolation, erosion, total ph...The goal of the study was to model water quality impacts of growing perennial grasses on marginal soils. The GLEAMS-NAPRA and RUSLE models were used to simulate long-term surface runoff, percolation, erosion, total phosphorus (TP), and nitrate (NO3-N) losses associated with the production of corn-based bioenergy systems (i.e. conventional tillage corn and corn grain plus stover removal), switchgrass and Miscanthus on three marginal quality soils and one good quality soil in Indiana. Simulations showed that switchgrass and Miscanthus had no effect on annual runoff, but decreased percolation by at least 17%. Results also suggested a potential for reduction in erosion for Miscanthus across the soil types examined when compared to corn-based bioenergy production. The production of switchgrass and Miscanthus did not have significant effects on the simulated TP and NO3-N losses in runoff compared to corn production systems. Nitrates leached from fertilized Miscanthus production were approximately 90% lower than NO3-N leached from the production of fertilized switchgrass and corn systems. Additional studies are needed to better understand the hydrology, erosion and nutrient responses of Miscanthus and switchgrass production to meet bioenergy demands.展开更多
The Soil and Water Assessment Tool(SWAT)is widely used to relate farm management practices to their impacts on surface waters at the watershed scale,yet its smallest spatial unit is not generally defined by physically...The Soil and Water Assessment Tool(SWAT)is widely used to relate farm management practices to their impacts on surface waters at the watershed scale,yet its smallest spatial unit is not generally defined by physically meaningful boundaries.The hydrologic response unit(HRU)is the smallest spatial unit of the model,and the standard HRU definition approach lumps all similar land uses,soils,and slopes within a subbasin based upon user-defined thresholds.This standard method provides an efficient way to discretize large watersheds where simulation at the field scale may not be computationally feasible.In relatively smaller watersheds,however,defining HRUs to specific spatial locations bounded by property lines or field borders would often be advantageous,yet this is not currently possible within the ArcSWAT interface.In this study,a simple approach is demonstrated that defines HRUs by field boundaries through addition of uniquely named soils to the SWAT user soil database and creation of a field boundary layer with majority land use and soil attributes.Predictions of nitrogen,phosphorus,and sediment losses were compared in a case study watershed where SWAT was set up using both the standard HRU definition and field boundary approach.Watershed-scale results were reasonable and similar for both methods,but aggregating fields by majority soil type masked extremely high soil erosion predicted for a few soils.Results from field-based HRU delineation may be quite different from the standard approach due to choosing a majority soil type in each farm field.This approach is flexible such that any land use and soil data prepared for SWAT can be used and any shapefile boundary can divide HRUs.展开更多
文摘The goal of the study was to model water quality impacts of growing perennial grasses on marginal soils. The GLEAMS-NAPRA and RUSLE models were used to simulate long-term surface runoff, percolation, erosion, total phosphorus (TP), and nitrate (NO3-N) losses associated with the production of corn-based bioenergy systems (i.e. conventional tillage corn and corn grain plus stover removal), switchgrass and Miscanthus on three marginal quality soils and one good quality soil in Indiana. Simulations showed that switchgrass and Miscanthus had no effect on annual runoff, but decreased percolation by at least 17%. Results also suggested a potential for reduction in erosion for Miscanthus across the soil types examined when compared to corn-based bioenergy production. The production of switchgrass and Miscanthus did not have significant effects on the simulated TP and NO3-N losses in runoff compared to corn production systems. Nitrates leached from fertilized Miscanthus production were approximately 90% lower than NO3-N leached from the production of fertilized switchgrass and corn systems. Additional studies are needed to better understand the hydrology, erosion and nutrient responses of Miscanthus and switchgrass production to meet bioenergy demands.
基金Primary funding for this work came from a USDA NRCS Conservation Innovation GrantThis work was also partially funded by the University of Michigan Graham Sustainability Instituteby the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative(administered by USEPA)through a NOAA-GLERL SOAR project.
文摘The Soil and Water Assessment Tool(SWAT)is widely used to relate farm management practices to their impacts on surface waters at the watershed scale,yet its smallest spatial unit is not generally defined by physically meaningful boundaries.The hydrologic response unit(HRU)is the smallest spatial unit of the model,and the standard HRU definition approach lumps all similar land uses,soils,and slopes within a subbasin based upon user-defined thresholds.This standard method provides an efficient way to discretize large watersheds where simulation at the field scale may not be computationally feasible.In relatively smaller watersheds,however,defining HRUs to specific spatial locations bounded by property lines or field borders would often be advantageous,yet this is not currently possible within the ArcSWAT interface.In this study,a simple approach is demonstrated that defines HRUs by field boundaries through addition of uniquely named soils to the SWAT user soil database and creation of a field boundary layer with majority land use and soil attributes.Predictions of nitrogen,phosphorus,and sediment losses were compared in a case study watershed where SWAT was set up using both the standard HRU definition and field boundary approach.Watershed-scale results were reasonable and similar for both methods,but aggregating fields by majority soil type masked extremely high soil erosion predicted for a few soils.Results from field-based HRU delineation may be quite different from the standard approach due to choosing a majority soil type in each farm field.This approach is flexible such that any land use and soil data prepared for SWAT can be used and any shapefile boundary can divide HRUs.
