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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #185431
Title: TRANSPORT OF MANURE CONSTITUENTS IN RUNOFF

Author
item GUBER, ANDREY - U. OF CA.,RIVERSIDE,CA
item Shelton, Daniel
item Sadeghi, Ali
item Sikora, Lawrence
item NEMES, A. - U. OF CA.,RIVERSIDE,CA
item Pachepsky, Yakov

Submitted to: American Geophysical Union
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/8/2005
Publication Date: 11/5/2005
Citation: Guber, A.K., Shelton, D.R., Sadeghi, A.M., Sikora, L.J., Nemes, A., Pachepsky, Y.A. 2005. Transport of manure constituents in runoff [abstract]. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. 2005 CDROM.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Fecal coliforms (FC) are often used as indicators of pathogenic bacteria contamination of surface water from surface-applied manure. Manure constituents other than FC may serve as natural tracers of bacterial contamination provided the rates of release from manure and surface transport mechanisms are similar. The objective of this work was to compare fecal coliforms (FC), organic carbon (OC), and water-soluble phosphorus (P) transport from dissolving manure applied on hillslopes with different soil texture and surface cover conditions under simulated rainfall. Two-by-six meters runoff plots were set in triplicate on vegetated and bare 20% slopes with sandy loam and clay loam soils at the ARS Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. Fresh bovine manure was applied at the top 30-cm wide strip, and at 50 cm x 30 cm miniplots in the immediate vicinity of runoff plots. Rainfall (ca. 6 cm per hour) was simulated for 1 hour on bare plots and for 1.5 hours on vegetated plots. Runoff was collected from gutters at the edge of runoff plots and miniplots at five-min intervals. In general, the volume of runoff was less from vegetated plots than from bare plots, and was less from sandy loam plots than from clay loam plots. Partitioning of fecal coliforms between runoff and suspended sediment was quantified using the partitioning coefficient Kd . The Kd values were greater for the sandy loam plot than the clay loam soil. The value of the partitioning coefficient increased from spring to fall at all plots. Release kinetics of FC and soluble P were similar. The fast release stage of about 20 minutes was followed by aa relatively slow release stage. Both soil texture and vegetation significantly affected transport of the manure constituents. More than 70% of manure FC and OC were transported with runoff over bare plots, and less than 15% over vegetation plots. Overall, manure-borne P appears to be a promising potential tracer for assessing of manure-borne bacteria transport.