RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Nutrient Tracking Tool—a user-friendly tool for calculating nutrient reductions for water quality trading
JF Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
FD Soil and Water Conservation Society
SP 400
OP 410
DO 10.2489/jswc.66.6.400
VO 66
IS 6
A1 A. Saleh
A1 O. Gallego
A1 E. Osei
A1 H. Lal
A1 C. Gross
A1 S. McKinney
A1 H. Cover
YR 2011
UL http://www.jswconline.org/content/66/6/400.abstract
AB The Nutrient Tracking Tool (NTrT) is an enhanced version of the Nitrogen Trading Tool, a user-friendly Web-based computer program originally developed by the USDA. The NTrT estimates nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) and sediment losses from fields managed under a variety of cropping patterns and management practices through its user-friendly, Web-based linkage to the Agricultural Policy Environmental eXtender (APEX) model. It also accesses the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service's Web Soil Survey to utilize their geographic information system interface for field and operation identification and load soil information. The NTrT provides farmers, government officials, and other users with a fast and efficient method of estimating nitrogen and phosphorus credits for water quality trading, as well as other water quality, water quantity, and farm production impacts associated with conservation practices. The information obtained from the tool can help farmers determine the most cost-effective conservation practice alternatives for their individual operations and provide them with more advantageous options in a water quality credit trading program. An application of the NTrT to evaluate conservation practices on fields receiving dairy manure in a north central Texas watershed indicates that phosphorus-based application rates, filter strips, forest buffers, and complete manure export off the farm all result in reduced phosphorus losses from the fields on which those practices were implemented. When compared to a baseline condition that entailed manure application at the nitrogen agronomic rate of receiving crops, the reductions in total phosphorus losses associated with these practices ranged from 15% (2P Rate scenario) to 76% (forest buffer scenario).