Nitrogen fertilizer unabsorbed by crops eventually discharges into the environment through runoff, leaching and volatilization, resulting in three-dimensional (3D) pollution spanning from underground into space. Here we describe an approach for controlling nitrogen loss, developed using loss control fertilizer (LCF) prepared by adding modified natural nanoclay (attapulgite) to traditional ferti...

In catchments with impervious bedrock, the nitrate concentrations in streamwater often show marked seasonal and small inter-annual variations. The inter-annual trends are usually attributed to changes in nitrogen inputs, due to changes in land use or in nitrogen deposition whereas seasonal patterns are explained in terms of availability of soil nitrate for leaching and of seasonality of nitroge...

In Canterbury land-use intensification, particularly irrigated dairy expansion, is occurring on stony soils. Concerns exist about the ability of these soils to sustain intensified land-use, while maintaining nutrient leaching within discharge limits. Environmental models consistently predict stony soils as having a high vulnerability to leaching under intensive land use, but there is little exp...

The Lower Burdekin Delta (LBD) is located on the dry-tropical coastal strip in North Queensland, Australia. The region is Australia’s largest sugar producing area with approximately 38,000 hectares of land under sugarcane. However, the LBD also borders the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA). Thus industry, community, and federal, regulatory and environmental organisations are inter...

The effects of three common tree species – Scots pine, Norway spruce and silver birch – on leaching of dissolved organic carbon and dissolved nitrogen were studied in an experimental forest with podzolised soils in southern Sweden. We analyzed soil water collected with lysimeters and modeled water fluxes to estimate dissolved C and N fluxes. Specific UV absorbance (SUVA) was analyzed to get inf...

An empirical model is developed to estimate the effects of alternative farming practices on potential nitrogen runoff and leaching in 128,591 National Resources Inventory sites across the Midwest and the Northern Plains of the United States. This model integrates the effects of soils, climate, crops, and management practices on nitrogen loss. The model is applied to evaluation of two policy sce...

Nitrogen management continues to be diffi cult due to transformations of nitrogen fertilizers that are possible when applied to soil and the uncertainties of weather (Cabrera et al., 2008). Nitrogen (N) fertilizer in the form of urea is subject to ammonia volatilization through the activity of the urease enzyme found ubiquitously in soil (Kissel et al., 2008). Nitrate fertilizer is subject to l...