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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbus, Ohio » Soil Drainage Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #380583
Research Project: Agricultural Water Management in Poorly Drained Midwestern Agroecosystems

Location: Soil Drainage Research

Title: DRAINMOD-P: A model for simulating phosphorus dynamics and transport in drained agricultural lands: II. model testing

Author
item ASKAR, MANAL - Michigan State University
item YOUSSEF, MOHAMED - North Carolina State University
item HESTERBERG, DEAN - North Carolina State University
item King, Kevin
item AMOOZEGAR, AZIZ - North Carolina State University
item SKAGGS, WAYNE - North Carolina State University
item CHESCHEIR, GEORGE - North Carolina State University
item GHANE, EHSAN - Michigan State University

Submitted to: Journal of the ASABE
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/7/2021
Publication Date: 11/1/2021
Citation: Askar, M., Youssef, M., Hesterberg, D., King, K.W., Amoozegar, A., Skaggs, W., Chescheir, G., Ghane, E. 2021. DRAINMOD-P: A model for simulating phosphorus dynamics and transport in drained agricultural lands: II. model testing. Journal of the ASABE. 64(6):1849-1866. https://doi.org/10.13031/trans.14510.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.13031/trans.14510

Interpretive Summary: Hydrology and water quality models are needed to identify knowledge gaps in current research, project the environmental effects of production management, and inform policy decisions. Models are continually evolving to provide insight on current water quality issues. Within the Great Lakes region, agricultural nutrient loss, particularly phosphorus has been identified as a major culprit in the development of harmful and nuisance algal blooms. However, many of the current water quality models are limited in their ability to simulate nutrient movement through tile drainage. A phosphorus routine was developed, incorporated into an existing tile drainage simulation model (DRAINMOD), and evaluated against measured data from the Lake Erie watershed. The findings and enhanced model provides researchers, practitioners, and policy makers a tool to more confidently simulate phosphorus movement in tile drained landscapes.

Technical Abstract: The recently developed phosphorus (P) model, DRAINMOD-P, was tested using a four-year dataset from a subsurface-drained field in northwest Ohio with significant potential for desiccation cracking or preferential flow. The model satisfactorily predicted subsurface drainage discharge with 0.89 monthly index of agreement (IOA). Lack of annual water budget closure, likely caused by uncertainty in measured surface runoff and/or modeling approaches representing macropore flow, was reported. More than 80% of predicted surface and subsurface P lost was in the particulate form. Surface runoff was the major pathway for P loss, contributing 78% to predicted total P load. The DRAINMOD-P performance in predicting monthly dissolved reactive P and TP losses through subsurface drains can be rated as poor (IOA=0.60) and very good (IOA=0.95), respectively. DRAINMOD-P demonstrated potential for simulating P fate and transport in drained cropland. More testing is needed to further examine newly incorporated hydrological and biogeochemical components of the model.