Water Quality Management, subject area within SLU Agricultural Long-Term Experiments
Project overview
More related research
Short summary
The agricultural sector plays an important role in combating the eutrophication of lakes, watercourses, and seas. At the Department of Soil and Environment, cultivation practices are continuously being developed to improve nutrient use efficiency and reduce nutrient losses from agricultural land.
The leaching experiments are valuable resources for this work. They allow us to monitor the direct and long-term effects of different cultivation practices and crop rotations on nutrient flows in crops, soil, and drainage water.
What makes the leaching experiments unique is that each experimental plot has its own drainage system with continuous measurement of water flow and flow-proportional water sampling. Leaching experiments within the long-term field trial program are located at four sites in southern Sweden: Lönnstorp (Skåne), Mellby (Halland), Fotegården (Västergötland), and Lanna (Västergötland).
Among the trials, there are four with organic farming, with and without livestock (Lanna and Mellby). The remaining four trials are managed conventionally, where we study, among other things, different types of cover crops, the effects of manure application, and various soil tillage systems.
