Long-Term Agroecosystem Research in the Central Mississippi River Basin: Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed and Regional Nutrient Water Quality Data

Abstract

We document the 20-yr-long research effort to study the transport of N and P to surface and groundwater in Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed. We also document related efforts in nearby claypan watersheds and watersheds with contrasting soil and hydrologic conditions across the northern Missouri-southern Iowa region. Details of the analytical methods, instrumentation, method detection limits, and quality assurance program used to generate the data are described along with a brief overview of significant findings. Nutrient concentrations in streams were in the range associated with nuisance algal growth and presumed loss of aquatic invertebrate diversity. Incorporation of fertilizers was shown to be the most effective practice for reducing nutrient transport in runoff. Despite the claypan soils, NO leaching was a major fate for fertilizer N, and significant contamination of the glacial till aquifer has occurred when long-term fertilizer and manure N inputs exceeded crop N requirements. A key finding of these studies was that field areas with the poorest crop growth were also the most vulnerable to nutrient as well as sediment and herbicide transport.