Three models were evaluated for their accuracy in simulating pesticide runoff at the edge of agricultural fields: Pesticide Root Zone Model (PRZM), Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM), and OpusCZ. Modeling results on runoff volume, sediment erosion, and pesticide loss were compared with measurements taken from field studies. Models were also compared on their theoretical foundations and ease ...

Soil phosphorus (P) fertility arising from historic P inputs is a major driver of P mobilisation in agricultural runoff and increases the risk of aquatic eutrophication. To determine the environmental benefit of lowering soil P fertility, a meta-analysis of the relationship between soil test P (measured as Olsen-P) and P concentrations in agricultural drainflow and surface runoff in mostly UK s...

To reduce muddy ̄ooding in northern France, where soils are typically silty and highly sensitive to crusting, it is necessary to decrease the volumes of sediment-laden runoff coming from upslope agricultural source areas. To investigate the consequences of upslope agricultural practices on downslope muddy ̄ooding, we compared the effects of no-tillage treatment (NT), light-duty mouldboard ploug...

Passage of agricultural runoff through vegetated drainage ditches has been shown to reduce the amount of pesticides, such as atrazine, exiting out of agricultural watersheds. Previous studies have found that microbial communities in soil from fields treated with atrazine display enhanced rates of atrazine degradation. However, no studies have examined the potential for atrazine degradation in d...

Best management practices (BMPs) are widely promoted in agricultural watersheds as a means of improving water quality and ameliorating altered hydrology. We used a paired watershed approach to evaluate whether focused outreach could increase BMP implementation rates and whether BMPs could induce watershed-scale (4000 ha) changes in nutrients, suspended sediment concentrations, or hydrology in a...

Emerging technologies of remote sensing and GIS were integrated to estimate runoff for watershed basins in China Taipei and Florida. Two basins were selected in each region, with each pair representing a static and a developing case. Remotely sensed images from the Landsat 4, 5, and 7 satellites were used to develop land cover maps of the study areas for the years 1990, 1995, and 2000. GIS anal...

Dissolved phosphorus (P) in runoff from surface-applied fertilizers can be relatively great, but commonly used, field or watershed-scale computer models often do not simulate direct transfer of fertilizer P to runoff. Using data from our own simulated rainfall experiments and published runoff studies, we developed a simplemodel to predict fertilizer P release during rain and the concentration o...