On-farm assessment of soil erosion and non-point source pollution in a rain-fed vegetable production system at Dianchi lake’s catchment, southwestern China

Abstract

Vegetable is important cash crop in Dianchi lake’s catchment, but the non-point source (NPS) pollution from the intensive agricultural production systems is a critical hurdle on the alleviation of serious eutrophication in Dianchi lake. Our objectives were to quantify soil erosion and NPS pollution in rain-fed vegetable production systems at the area. The experiment was a randomized complete factorial design with two plastic mulch treatments (narrow vs. wide plastic mulch) and two rotation treatments (broccoli–zucchini–winter wheat vs. broccoli–zucchini–fallow). The narrow-plastic-mulch system has significantly (P < 0.05) increased runoff and soil loss than wide-plastic-mulch system. Results indicated that plastic mulch substantially accelerated runoff generation and soil erosion at vegetable seedling stages, whereas runoff and soil loss were apparently alleviated in furrow with residue mulch. The sediment transport played a predominant role in soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) movement by surface runoff. The annual losses of N and P via surface runoff in the vegetable field were ranged from 2.0 to 5.1 kg/ha and 0.3 to 1.1 kg/ha respectively in the three considerably drier rain season, but their losses never exceeded 1 % of the annual fertilizer application. Removal of crop residues was the major causes of N and P export from the soil in the vegetable fields, which exceeded 20 and 8 % of the annual nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer application respectively. This implicated that inappropriately discarding of the residues would pose serious consequences for water contamination of Dianchi lake. As under appropriate discarding of residues, the wide-plastic-mulch system could improve NPS pollution control and crop production in vegetable field at Dianchi lake’s catchment.