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Assessing Watershed Transport of Atrazine and Nitrate to Evaluate Conservation Practice Effects and Advise Future Monitoring Strategies

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Abstract

Continued public support for U.S. taxpayer funded programs aimed at reducing agricultural pollutants depends on clear demonstrations of water quality improvements. The objective of this research was to determine if implementation of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) in the Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed (GCEW) resulted in changes to atrazine and nitrate (NO3–N) loads during storm events. An additional objective was to estimate future monitoring periods necessary to detect a 5, 10, 20, and 25% reduction in atrazine and NO3–N event load. The GCEW is a 73 km2 watershed located in northcentral Missouri, USA. Linear regressions and Akaike Information Criteria were used to determine if reductions in atrazine and NO3–N event loads occurred as BMPs were implemented. No effects due to any BMP type were indicated for the period of record. Further investigation of event sampling from the long-term GCEW monitoring program indicated errors in atrazine load calculations may be possible due to pre-existing minimum threshold levels used to trigger autosampling and sample compositing. Variation of event loads was better explained by linear regressions for NO3–N than for atrazine. Decommissioning of upstream monitoring stations during the study period represented a missed opportunity to further explain variation of event loads at the watershed outlet. Atrazine requires approximately twice the monitoring period relative to NO3–N to detect future reductions in event load. Appropriate matching of pollutant transport mechanisms with autosampling protocols remains a critical information need when setting up or adapting watershed monitoring networks aimed at detecting watershed-scale BMP effects.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. George Justice, Dean of the Graduate School, University of Missouri, for continued direction and support during submission of this manuscript. I also thank Drs. Stephen H. Anderson, Professor, Department of Soil, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Missouri and Claire Baffaut, Hydrologist, USDA-ARS Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research Unit for advising me during completion of this component of my doctoral research. Teri Oster, USDA-ARS Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research Unit was instrumental in providing data sets necessary to complete this research. Many USDA-ARS field technicians were responsible for setup and collection of data used for this manuscript and I also thank them. I thank Dr. Chris Wilke, Department of Statistics, University of Missouri for assistance on statistical approaches employed by this research effort. Finally, I thank three anonymous reviewers who substantially improved this manuscript. Funding for this research was provided by the USDA-CSREES (now National Institute for Food and Agriculture), National Integrated Water Quality—Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) (Grant # 2005-51130-02380).

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  1. Department of Soil, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Missouri, 302 ABNR Building, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA

    T. Kevin O’Donnell

  2. U.S. EPA - Great Lakes National Program Office, 77 West Jackson Blvd. (G-17J), Chicago, IL, 60604, USA

    T. Kevin O’Donnell

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O’Donnell, T.K. Assessing Watershed Transport of Atrazine and Nitrate to Evaluate Conservation Practice Effects and Advise Future Monitoring Strategies. Environmental Management 49, 267–284 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-011-9780-7

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