Scholarly Works, Virginia Water Resources Research Center

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https://hdl.handle.net/10919/24331
Research articles, presentations, and other scholarship

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Browsing Scholarly Works, Virginia Water Resources Research Center by Subject "Agriculture"

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    Comparing Sediment Trap Data With Erosion Models for Evaluation of Forest Haul Road Stream Crossing Approaches
    Lang, A. J.; Aust, W. Michael; Bolding, M. Chad; McGuire, Kevin J.; Schilling, Erik B. (American Society of Agricultural & Biological Engineers, 2017-01-01)
    Soil erosion and sediment delivery models have been developed to estimate the inherent complexities of soil erosion, but most models are not specifically modified for forest operation applications. Three erosion models, the Universal Soil Loss Equation for forestry (USLE-Forest), Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation Version 2 (RUSLE2), and Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP), were compared to one year of trapped sediment data for 37 forest haul road stream crossings. We assessed model performance from five variations of the three erosion models: USLE-Roadway, USLE-Soil Survey, RUSLE2, WEPP-Default, and WEPP-Modified. Each road approach was categorized into one of four levels of erosion (very low, low, moderate, and high) based on trapped erosion rate data and erosion rates reported in recent peerreviewed literature. Model performance metrics included: (1) summary statistics and nonparametric analysis, (2) linear relationships, (3) percent agreement within erosion categories and tolerable error ranges, and (4) contingency table metrics. Sediment trap data varied from negligible (<0.1) to hundreds of Mg ha-1 year-1. The soil erosion models evaluated could estimate erosion within 5 Mg ha-1year-1 for most approaches having erosion rates less than 11.2 Mg ha-1 year-1, while models estimates varied widely for approaches that eroded at rates above 11.2 Mg ha-1year-1. Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric analyses revealed that only WEPP-Modified estimates were not significantly different from trapped sediment data (p ≥ 0.107). While WEPP-Modified ranked best for most model performance metrics, the time, effort, modeling expertise, and uncertainty associated with model results may discourage the use of WEPP as a forest management tool. WEPP is better suited for researchers and government agencies that have the capability to measure extensive parameter data. Additional sensitivity analysis is needed to expand default parameters for forest roads within the WEPP and USLE models.
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    Seasonality of nitrogen balances in a Mediterranean climate watershed, Oregon, US
    Lin, Jiajia; Compton, Jana E.; Leibowitz, Scott G.; Mueller-Warrant, George; Matthews, William; Schoenholtz, Stephen H.; Evans, Daniel M.; Coulombe, Rob A. (2018-12-19)
    We constructed a seasonal nitrogen (N) budget for the year 2008 in the Calapooia River Watershed (CRW), an agriculturally dominated tributary of the Willamette River (Oregon, U.S.) under Mediterranean climate. Synthetic fertilizer application to agricultural land (dominated by grass seed crops) was the source of 90% of total N input to the CRW. Over 70% of the stream N export occurred during the wet winter, the primary time of fertilization and precipitation, and the lowest export occurred in the dry summer. Averaging across all 58 tributary subwatersheds, 19% of annual N inputs were exported by streams, and 41% by crop harvest. Regression analysis of seasonal stream export showed that winter fertilization was associated with 60% of the spatial variation in winter stream export, and this fertilizer continued to affect N export in later seasons. Annual N inputs were highly correlated with crop harvest N (r(2)=0.98), however, seasonal dynamics in N inputs and losses produced relatively low overall nitrogen use efficiency (41%), suggesting that hydrologic factors may constrain improvements in nutrient management. The peak stream N export during fall and early winter creates challenges to reducing N losses to groundwater and surface waters. Construction of a seasonal N budget illustrated that the period of greatest N loss is disconnected from the period of greatest crop N uptake. Management practices that serve to reduce the N remaining in the system at the end of the growing season and prior to the fall and winter rains should be explored to reduce stream N export.