Manure and Water Quality

Javed Iqbal Author

01/22/2020 Added

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Manure and Water Quality presentation for Land Application Training 2020

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[00:00:06.860]Hello, my name is Javed Iqbal.
[00:00:08.670]I'm a nutrient management and water quality specialist
[00:00:11.620]at University of Nebraska Lincoln.
[00:00:14.310]I'm here to talk about the effect
[00:00:16.070]of manure use on water quality.
[00:00:19.480]Here are the outlines that I am going to talk about today.
[00:00:23.390]First, I will be spending few minutes
[00:00:25.520]on the water quality issues
[00:00:27.200]that we often see in the headlines.
[00:00:29.890]And then, we will go through the sources
[00:00:32.070]of water contamination.
[00:00:34.210]And at the end, we will look at the solution
[00:00:37.140]to the soil and water resources
[00:00:39.277]of water issues that we are facing.
[00:00:44.100]So starting with water quality issues.
[00:00:46.640]I want you to look at the interaction
[00:00:49.810]of four life components:
[00:00:51.750]Soil, air, water, and vegetation.
[00:00:55.810]We apply manure
[00:00:57.470]and fertilizers in the soil
[00:01:00.619]to feed the crop.
[00:01:03.240]So however, depending on how much fertilizer
[00:01:07.085]you are putting, when you are putting,
[00:01:10.020]which place you are putting,
[00:01:11.640]some of the fertilizer is being up taken by the crop,
[00:01:16.080]while the other nutrients they can
[00:01:18.900]move to air and water components.
[00:01:25.510]So, interaction between
[00:01:27.482]these four components
[00:01:29.360]is really vital,
[00:01:30.830]because mismanagement, or misuse,
[00:01:33.260]of resources that falls in (?) soil component
[00:01:36.210]can have some negative impact on air and water resources.
[00:01:42.750]For example, here is a USA map
[00:01:44.960]showing how the land use management in the states
[00:01:48.880]has effected and caused eutrophic and hypoxic conditions
[00:01:53.630]at the West Coast, East Coast, and Gulf of Mexico.
[00:01:57.610]Here, the red dots indicate the hypoxic condition,
[00:02:01.420]while the yellow dots indicate the
[00:02:04.782]eutrophic conditions,
[00:02:07.420]while the green dots indicate the system in recovery.
[00:02:12.310]Before we proceed further with the presentation,
[00:02:15.490]I want to make sure that you all understand
[00:02:18.738]eutrophic and hypoxia so we are on the same page.
[00:02:24.150]Eutrophication occurs when
[00:02:25.700]nutrient runoff from agricultural lands
[00:02:29.140]to lakes, to rivers,
[00:02:31.850]or to water bodies.
[00:02:33.950]This nutrient enrichment in the water bodies
[00:02:37.700]increases the growth of algae.
[00:02:40.670]This algae blocks sunlight for the aquatic life.
[00:02:45.310]As this algae die it consumes up
[00:02:48.540]oxygen in this water.
[00:02:51.710]So, this depleted oxygen can
[00:02:55.630]affect aquatic life
[00:02:57.610]and this zone with depleted oxygen
[00:03:00.410]is called hypoxia, or hypoxic zone.
[00:03:05.030]You may have heard of hypoxia issue in the Gulf of Mexico.
[00:03:10.260]Nutrients in the runoff from the Mississippi River,
[00:03:15.773]in the Mississippi River Basin they run off
[00:03:17.982]through the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.
[00:03:21.780]This nutrient enrichment in the Gulf of Mexico
[00:03:25.710]leads to severe eutrophication and ultimately to hypoxia
[00:03:31.220]with oxygen-depleted to
[00:03:34.550]less than 2 parts per million.
[00:03:37.990]This oxygen-depleted zone that we call hypoxia
[00:03:43.140]is also known as dead zone
[00:03:45.040]and which has some adverse effect on the aquatic life.
[00:03:50.710]In the red spots that you are seeing,
[00:03:53.580]in this Gulf of Mexico,
[00:03:56.840]the dead zone,
[00:03:58.130]it has a recorded increase
[00:04:00.620]in this area in the year 2017.
[00:04:04.860]And it was almost the size of New Jersey.
[00:04:09.810]If the nutrients runoff into the Gulf of Mexico,
[00:04:13.750]is continued to increase we will see
[00:04:16.500]more expanded area for this dead zone.
[00:04:22.300]Harmful algal blooms is another water quality issue
[00:04:26.000]that we are facing.
[00:04:27.620]This is not an algae.
[00:04:29.400]This is a cyanobacteria that looks like algae.
[00:04:33.740]This cyanobacteria gains energy by photosynthesis
[00:04:37.940]and this is known as toxic blue green algae.
[00:04:42.820]You may have seen this kind of algal blooms
[00:04:45.450]in local rivers and lakes.
[00:04:48.250]And this appears in the form of foam, scum,
[00:04:51.660]or mats on the surface of the water.
[00:04:55.420]This is produced from a combination of different conditions.
[00:04:59.940]For example, water temperature, low water depth,
[00:05:03.560]and presence of excess nutrients, and wind.
[00:05:07.180]This blue-green algae also produces
[00:05:10.210]a substance called microcystin toxin.
[00:05:15.520]Now the question is, who cares
[00:05:18.420]if these rivers and seas, our water bodies, turn green?
[00:05:24.410]Who is more affected by this green water?
[00:05:27.970]I think we are all affected.
[00:05:31.100]Because, these water quality issues, or the green water,
[00:05:34.590]affects public health.
[00:05:36.400]Depending on the type of algae,
[00:05:38.800]these algal blooms can have some severe health defects
[00:05:42.160]and even can cause death.
[00:05:45.180]Eating seafood contaminated with these toxins
[00:05:49.160]from algae called Alexandrium can lead to
[00:05:52.480]paralytic shellfish poisoning, which can cause paralysis.
[00:05:58.420]And these water issues also have a
[00:06:01.070]significant impact on fish industry.
[00:06:04.600]The eutrophication not only destroys
[00:06:07.560]the valuable fish and shrimps,
[00:06:09.790]but this also affects the habitats for other many life.
[00:06:14.790]And these water quality issues also have a
[00:06:17.570]big effect on the tourist industry.
[00:06:20.560]Nobody would want to visit the
[00:06:23.200]poisonous and arduous coastal areas.
[00:06:27.720]The effect of harmful algal blooms
[00:06:30.010]can also be seen at our local scale.
[00:06:33.080]You may have seen some warning signs at
[00:06:35.680]rivers or lakes whenever you visit them.
[00:06:39.030]This is because exposure to these harmful algal blooms
[00:06:43.320]can have some health issue effects for
[00:06:45.800]livestock, human, and pet health.
[00:06:51.040]Last year, Nebraska issues health alert
[00:06:54.360]for the same toxic blue-green algae
[00:06:57.430]that killed three dogs in North Carolina.
[00:07:01.720]This health alerts were issued
[00:07:03.610]for two Northeast Nebraska locations,
[00:07:07.170]and some designated swimming spots
[00:07:10.360]were also closed during this alert.
[00:07:13.690]In the past, some lakes have also been closed
[00:07:16.010]because of these issues, because of the safety reason.
[00:07:19.920]If these algal blooms will continue to grow
[00:07:22.550]because of the nutrient runoff,
[00:07:25.490]we may see some regulations coming.
[00:07:29.460]Now, we will look at the sources
[00:07:31.270]of those water contamination.
[00:07:34.780]Actually, there are two types of water contamination,
[00:07:38.940]there are two sources of this contamination.
[00:07:42.090]Non-point sources and point sources.
[00:07:45.370]Non-point sources of contamination results from runoff
[00:07:51.000]from city streets, urban areas,
[00:07:54.040]rural homes, croplands, or animal feedlot.
[00:07:58.750]These sources are more diffused
[00:08:01.680]and they are really difficult to tease apart.
[00:08:05.460]While the point sources, they are really direct sources
[00:08:09.850]and these result from effluent runoff from
[00:08:13.580]waste water treatment plant or
[00:08:15.790]from factory or some chemical industries.
[00:08:19.150]These are direct sources and they are very easy to identify.
[00:08:23.610]In today's presentation, I'm going to focus on
[00:08:26.620]the agricultural sources of non-point pollution.
[00:08:30.950]Now, you may wonder, how much of these agricultural sources
[00:08:35.110]or non-point contribute to water quality issues.
[00:08:41.040]Here are a couple of pie charts which show the
[00:08:43.740]nutrient load, the phosphorus and nitrogen load
[00:08:46.860]to the Gulf of Mexico.
[00:08:49.730]On the left chart, you would see that
[00:08:52.640]agricultural crops contribute about
[00:08:54.910]43% of phosphorus load
[00:08:57.960]to the Gulf of Mexico.
[00:09:00.000]While the livestock contributes about 37% of it
[00:09:03.200]which is really a big number.
[00:09:05.760]For nitrogen, agricultural crops they are major contributor
[00:09:09.650]and contributes about 66% of nitrogen load.
[00:09:13.640]While livestock contributes 5% of the nitrogen load.
[00:09:19.670]Now, how much this nitrogen, nutrient load,
[00:09:23.700]is occurring from Nebraska?
[00:09:26.330]Let's look at this graph that is taken from USGS.
[00:09:31.990]As you can see in this map, there are some states that
[00:09:35.760]have more load compared to other states
[00:09:39.320]in the Mississippi River Basin.
[00:09:41.360]For example, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, or Arkansas,
[00:09:45.780]they have more nutrient load.
[00:09:48.530]In Nebraska, we have significant load from the
[00:09:51.720]Eastern Nebraska, or the Central East,
[00:09:54.740]or the Northeast side of Nebraska.
[00:09:59.130]Now, you may wonder, how the phosphorus from your field
[00:10:02.910]moves to Gulf of Mexico or moves to our local lakes
[00:10:07.248]and ponds or other water reservoirs.
[00:10:11.780]Well the problem starts when we apply phosphorus
[00:10:15.540]more than the crop needs.
[00:10:17.940]This excessive phosphorus enters
[00:10:20.050]ponds, lakes, and reservoirs in runoff.
[00:10:23.690]In order to better understand,
[00:10:25.280]let's look at the phosphorus cycle in lakes.
[00:10:28.990]The phosphorus enters in runoff
[00:10:32.480]in the form of dissolved phosphorus
[00:10:36.202]and particulate phosphorus.
[00:10:39.340]Out of these two forms of phosphorus,
[00:10:41.740]particulate phosphorus has major contribution.
[00:10:45.870]It consists of 75% to 90% of total P in the runoff.
[00:10:52.410]What is more desirable for the algal growth
[00:10:55.170]is the bioavailable phosphorus.
[00:10:57.740]And this bioavailable phosphorus consists of
[00:11:01.840]dissolved phosphorus,
[00:11:03.400]and about 20% to 40% of particulate phosphorus.
[00:11:08.470]Where does the other particulate phosphorus go?
[00:11:11.940]Well, 60% to 80% of particulate phosphorus
[00:11:16.560]settles in the form of sediment P in the water reservoirs.
[00:11:20.870]That can be referred as eutrophication "time bomb",
[00:11:24.950]because this sediment phosphorus
[00:11:27.170]becomes bioavailable over time
[00:11:30.220]and continues eutrophication over time.
[00:11:35.920]Now, let's look at some of the solutions to the
[00:11:39.330]soil and water issues that we are facing.
[00:11:42.930]It is really challenging.
[00:11:44.750]How do we deal with these issues?
[00:11:47.690]Well, the solution to the non-point sources
[00:11:51.200]of phosphorus pollution is a watershed approach.
[00:11:56.080]The flow of nutrients in runoff is always downstream.
[00:12:01.170]The nutrient flow from field to channel,
[00:12:04.010]to stream, pond, and to ocean.
[00:12:07.660]And we also see the effects of those nutrient contamination
[00:12:11.950]at our local scale
[00:12:13.660]at rivers, lakes, and ponds.
[00:12:18.440]So the flow of the nutrients is commonly downstream
[00:12:22.564]however, the solution is upstream.
[00:12:26.120]It starts at the fieldscape.
[00:12:31.300]What you can do about these issues?
[00:12:33.870]You already know. Keep phosphorus local.
[00:12:38.300]Good phosphorus management practices are really important.
[00:12:42.220]Managing fertilizers and manure in such a way that we can
[00:12:46.640]reduce the phosphorus runoff is a good strategy.
[00:12:51.530]Controlling soil erosion is a big component
[00:12:54.950]for reducing phosphorus runoff into the surface waters,
[00:13:01.100]because most of the phosphorus
[00:13:03.220]is tied to the soil particles.
[00:13:06.020]So adopting some of the conservation practices
[00:13:09.630]like grass waterways, no-till, filter strips, terraces,
[00:13:13.730]and cover crops can help us to reduce the soil erosion
[00:13:18.100]while reducing the phosphorus runoff to the surface waters.
[00:13:23.410]Controlling ephemeral gully erosion
[00:13:25.420]is a big component of soil erosion.
[00:13:28.260]As you can see in the picture on the right,
[00:13:30.640]ephemeral gully erosion
[00:13:32.730]which forms in the form of small channels
[00:13:37.560]when there is unprotected soils.
[00:13:41.480]NRCS has some guidelines
[00:13:44.150]on fixing these ephemeral gully erosion.
[00:13:50.710]Now, you may wonder, how much phosphorus loss
[00:13:55.210]is occurring from your own individual fields.
[00:13:59.040]Well to know that, Nebraska Phosphorus Index is a way to go.
[00:14:05.650]UNL extension circular 195
[00:14:08.960]has guidelines on how you can use this
[00:14:12.250]Nebraska Phosphorus Index.
[00:14:16.350]This phosphorus index tool is freely available
[00:14:20.312]on the animal manure management website.
[00:14:24.150]In my next presentation, I'm going to demonstrate
[00:14:26.860]how you can use this phosphorus index tool
[00:14:30.961]to estimate the phosphorus risk loss
[00:14:33.890]from your agricultural field to near surface water.
[00:14:39.660]With this, I will be happy to take any questions.
[00:14:43.150]You can reach out to me through my email
[00:14:45.720]or phone number that I have listed here.
[00:14:48.480]Thank you.

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