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Nitrate Leaching in a Sludge-Treated Forest Soil¹

ABSTRACT

Anaerobically digested liquid sludge was applied during two separate periods to plots in a mixed hardwood forest. High treatment plots received 26.96 metric tons/ha total solids and 3,034 kg/ha N loadings during the two applications, and low treatment plots received approximately half these loadings. Percolate samples collected at the 15-cm depth contained a maximum of 290 mg/liter NO₃^--N in the high treatment and 194 mg/liter NO₃^--N in the low treatment. Maximum monthly levels of NO₃^--N in percolate sampled at the 120-cm depth lagged 6 months behind peak levels at the 15-cm depth. Calculated average active transmitting soil porosity (P_act), based on field water budget data over this 6-month period, ranged from 15 to 22%. A CSMP computer simulation model based on a solution to the convection diffusion equation estimated the average P_act to be 15%. Since these data indicate that 27 to 50% of the pores may be stagnant, this suggests that soluble NO₃^--N was being channeled through interconnected macropores in the soil profile.

¹ Contribution from Science and Education Administration, USDA and The Pennsylvania State Univ. Institute for Res. on Land and Water Resour.

² Research Soil Scientist, USDA-SEA, West Virginia Univ., Morgantown, WV 26506 and Professor Emeritus of Soil Physics, Institute for Res. on Land and Water Resour., The Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA 16802. Senior author is now Watershed Management Extension Specialist, Dept. Forest Engineering, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR 97331.

Received for publication January 26, 1978. Accepted for publication November 16, 1978.