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Risk of nitrate leaching from two soils amended with biosolids

  • Water Quality and Protection: Environmental Aspects
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Abstract

High concentrations of N and P in biosolids are one of the strongest appeals for their agronomic use. However, it is essential to understand the fate of N in soils treated with biosolids for both plant nutrition and managing the environmental risk of NO −3 -N leaching. This work aims to evaluate the risk of nitrate leaching from a sandy Podosol soil and from a clay Ferrosol soil, each one amended at the range 0.5–8.0 dry Mg/ha rates of freshly tertiary sewage sludge, composted sludge, limed sludge, heating-dried sludge and solar-irradiated sludge. Results showed that for similar biosolids application rates NO −3 -N accumulated up to 3 times as much in the Ferrosol than in Podosol soil. However, there was a fixed 20% NO −3 -N loss from the 20 cm amended-Ferrosol topsoil, whilst the N-nitrified expected to leach down from 20 cm amended-Podosol topsoil layer ranged from 42% to 76% of the accumulated NO −3 -N, depending on the biosolid type. After all, NO −3 -N expected to leach from Podosol soil ranged from 0.6 (heating-dried sludge) to 3.9 times (limed sludge) relative to Ferrosol soil at similar biosolid application rates. Nevertheless, the risk of NO −3 -N groundwater contamination caused by biosolids applied at 0.5−8.0 dry Mg/ha rates could be considered very low.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Brasilia, Brazil. Caixa Postal 10.814, CEP 70.324-980, Brasilia/DF, Brazil

    R. S. Correa

  2. The University of Melbourne-ILFR, Victoria, 3010, Australia

    R. E. White & A. J. Weatherley

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  1. R. S. Correa
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  2. R. E. White
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  3. A. J. Weatherley
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Correspondence to R. S. Correa.

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Published in Russian in Vodnye Resursy, 2006, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 492–503.

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Correa, R.S., White, R.E. & Weatherley, A.J. Risk of nitrate leaching from two soils amended with biosolids. Water Resour 33, 453–462 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0097807806040117

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0097807806040117

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