Monitoring nutrient losses from arable land

– from individual fields to small catchment areas

Losses of nitrogen and phosphorus from arable land contribute to the eutrophication of lakes and coastal waters. Two sub-programs within the Swedish Environmental Monitoring program (‘Arable fields’ and ‘Agricultural catchments’) provide data to support the evaluation of mitigation programs that have been initiated in the agricultural sector to reduce nutrient losses. In both sub-programs, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations are monitored in water discharging from arable land: one focuses on water draining from individual arable fields (ca. 4-34 hectares in size), while the second is carried out at a larger scale, focusing on streams draining agricultural catchments ranging from 200 to 3500 hectares in size. The work is carried out by the Department of Soil and Environment at SLU and is financed by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

Staff members involved: 

Arable fields

Gunnar Torstensson
Göran Johansson

Agricultural catchments

Katarina Kyllmar
Lovisa Stjernman Forsberg
Stefan Andersson