Connecting field management to soil nitrate leaching in the southern Willamette Valley
Citation:
Compton, J., Jacqueline Brooks, AND L. Wang. Connecting field management to soil nitrate leaching in the southern Willamette Valley. BENTON SOIL & WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT 2024 AG SOIL HEALTH MEETING, Corvallis, OR, May 08, 2024.
Impact/Purpose:
Benton Soil and Water Conservation District, 2024 Ag Soil Health Meeting May 8, 2024. Jana Compton was invited to present on the EPA’s work measuring nitrate leaching from farm fields in the southern Willamette valley over the past 10 years. Jana will be presenting her collective work with Renee Brooks, Jiajia Lin, Rob Coulombe and others on the Willamette Valley’s nitrogen budgets at the watershed and field scale, with a focus on groundwater nitrate dynamics and collaborative research with farmers and local organizations to reduce field-level nitrate leaching on working farmland. Sponsored by the Oregon Chapter of the Soil & Water Conservation Society (oregonswcs.org). https://www.bentonswcd.org/2024-05-08-2024-ag-soil-health-meeting
Description:
This presentation will cover recent research on nutrient inputs, agricultural management and nitrate concentrations in soil solution and groundwater in the southern Willamette Basin’s Groundwater Management Area (GWMA). Non-point sources are the predominant inputs of nitrogen in the area, largely from fertilizer application for a diverse variety of crops grown in the Willamette Valley. Management of non-point source pollution in groundwater is an important and widespread challenge in many areas of the US, and this work could help inform other community-based projects tackling this challenging issue. The primary topics for this presentation include the results from community-driven research on nitrogen management and groundwater nitrate trends in the GWMA. EPA will also present the results of a RARE project completed at the end of FY21 that measured nitrate leaching from production farmland in order to understand how on the ground practices influence nitrate leaching. This presentation will allow us to communicate with EPA, state agencies, crop advisers, and others about the findings, explanations, implications and application for our study results.