Dairy slurry application to grasslands and groundwater quality in a volcanic soil

• J Huertas ^[4] ; J.G Cuevas ^[5] ; L Paulino ^[1] ; F Salazar ^[2] ; J.L Arumí ^[3] ; J Dörner ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad Austral de Chile

     Universidad Austral de Chile

     Valdivia, Chile

     
  2. [2] Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias

     Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias

     Santiago, Chile

     
  3. [3] Universidad de Concepción

     Universidad de Concepción

     Comuna de Concepción, Chile

     
  4. [4] Universidad Mariana Facultad de Ingeniería
  5. [5] Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas

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• Localización: Journal of soil science and plant nutrition, ISSN-e 0718-9516, ISSN 0718-9508, Vol. 16, Nº. 3, 2016, págs. 745-762
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Research in volcanic-ash soils has shown that they largely capture the dairy slurry following application to land; however, their hydrological properties would favor nutrient leaching. Our objective was to evaluate the contribution of biogeochemical and hydrological controls on the pollution of groundwater by cattle slurry applied to a permanent grassland growing on a volcanic soil. We sampled groundwater chemistry since 10 months before the fertilization (three samplings), and 16 months after, with samplings 1-2 months after the fertigation. Following fertilization, ammonium, exchangeable potassium, and magnesium soil concentrations increased in the fertilized plots compared to the control plots. In contrast, no effect of slurry on groundwater quality was detected, with the exception of dissolved organic nitrogen, a main component of dairy slurry that increased in the groundwater below the fertilized plots. Despite the fact that biogeochemical controls predominate, hydrological aspects would be important when rainfall is high, evapotranspiration is low, groundwater table level is high, and water movement in the saturated zone increases. We concluded that the application of slurry to pastures under rates comparable to a high fertilization in the short term, does not generally impact the groundwater quality in volcanic ash-derived soils.