ABSTRACT:
The Tri-State Tillage Project in the western basin of Lake Erie is an innovative demonstration and research program on the application and impacts of conservation tillage in the upper Midwest. The program seeks to identify and treat those areas that contribute the most sediment and phosphorus (P) to Lake Erie. Previous work with the universal soil loss equation (USLE) and delivery ratios produced mixed results in locating and quantifying these areas. In the Tri-State Project the ANSWERS model was used in conjunction with a simple P transport relationship to simulate the impacts of various amounts and types of conservation tillage in the basin. Eighteen sample watersheds, a 1.0% samnle of the total basin, represented the major soil groups in the area. Sediment and P yield reductions exceeding 80 % could result from a complete changeover to no-till. More likely used practices, however, produce reductions of 15 % to 45%. These simulations indicate that only certain soil groups need intensive treatment and that sought-for P reductions are possible with tillage management changes.
Footnotes
D. B. Beasley is an associate professor, E. J. Monke is a professor, E. R. Miller is a professional assistant, and L. F. Huggins is a professor and head, Agricultural Engineering Department, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907. This report was sponsored by the Great Lakes National Program Office, Region V, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Agricultural Experiment Station, Purdue University. Approved for publication as Purdue AES Journal Paper No. 9408.
- Copyright 1985 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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