Jharkhand state is characterized by plateau terrain and facing sever water scarcity largely on account of high runoff generated by adequate annual rainfall of about 1400mm per year. The run-off is one of the important hydrologic variables used for assessment of potential water yield of a watershed and appropriate measures for ground water recharging. The quantity and rate of runoff is influence...

Agricultural runoff often contains pollutants with antagonistic impacts. The individual influence of nutrients and atrazine on periphyton has been extensively studied, but their impact when introduced together and with multiple agricultural pollutants is less clear. We simulated a field-scale runoff pulse into a riverine wetland that mimicked pollutant composition typical of field runoff of the...

Waterway degradation in agricultural settings is caused by direct and diffuse sources of pollution. Waterway fencing focuses on reducing direct faecal contamination, but the extent to which it reduces overland surface runoff of pathogens is unknown. This study evaluated the potential of four riparian treatments to reduce Giardia in saturation excess surface runoff entering the waterway. Treatme...

The acreage planted in corn and soybean crops is vast, and these crops contribute substantially to the world economy. The agricultural practices employed for farming these crops have major effects on ecosystem health at a worldwide scale. The microbial communities living in agricultural soils significantly contribute to nutrient uptake and cycling and can have both positive and negative impacts...

Phosphorus transfer from agricultural soils to surface waters is an important environmental issue. Commonly used computer models like EPIC have not always been appropriately updated to reflect our improved understanding of soil P transformations and transfer to runoff. Our objectives were to determine if replacing EPIC’s constant sorption and desorption rate factor (0.1) with more dynamic rate ...

BACKGROUND Glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine] is a herbicide used widely throughout the world in the production of many crops and is heavily used on soybeans, corn and cotton. Glyphosate is used in almost all agricultural areas of the United States, and the agricultural use of glyphosate has increased from less than 10 000 Mg in 1992 to more than 80 000 Mg in 2007. The greatest intensity o...

A novel fractionation method, based on both particle size and settling characteristics, was employed to examine metal distributions among five fractions. In-stream and stormwater runoff samples were collected from four land use types: highway, urban, agricultural (storm event and irrigation), and natural. Highway samples contained the highest dissolved concentrations for most metals, and freshw...

Understanding the characteristics of non-point sources (NPS) pollutions can provide theoretical support for improving water quality. Siheshui watershed located in south China was selected to explore the characteristics of NPS pollutions in rainfall-runoff process. In this small agricultural watershed, five flood events and one non-flood event were monitored, and the water quantity and quality c...

AIMS To investigate the number of Escherichia coli in runoff derived directly from fresh cowpats and to determine if the E. coli are attached to dense particles, in flocs or as individual cells. METHODS AND RESULTS Three cowpats were collected monthly from the same farm for 13 months and the number of E. coli in them estimated. A rainfall simulator was used to generate runoff from the individ...