All three of the fields monitored in the three previous winters will undergo continued sampling in 2004/2005. The timing of water sampling will be controlled by the local precipitation which controls flow in ditches and drains. Water from the ditch in Field A will be sampled, as will the drains previously sampled from Field B, which has received an application of sewage sludge in September 2004. Sampling of water from the ditch, ponds and drains in Field C will continue, as a study of the nutrients one year after sewage sludge application. Further sampling of soils and ditch sediments will be undetaken across the fields. Size fractionation of water and soils will be performed to look at the distribution of nutirents in dissolved, colloidal and particulate forms.
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Automatic weather station: measures hourly rainfall, air and soil temp, wind speed and direction.
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The farm as a whole is currently being assessed using a P Index (Heathwaite et al., 2003) to evaluate the vulnerability of different fields to P loss. This includes measurement of soil P concentrations throughout the farm, determining erosion, runoff class and connectivity. This data will be used to generate scenarios of varying sewage sludge applications and land use to estimate the risk of P loss due to varying management practices.
Heathwaite et al., 2003, J. Plant Nutr. Soil Sci. 166, 1-12
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