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Updates to the MANAGE database to facilitate regional analyses of nutrient runoff

Updates to the MANAGE database to facilitate regional analyses of nutrient runoff ABBREVIATIONSMANAGEMeasured Annual Nutrient loads from AGricultural EnvironmentsINTRODUCTIONThe first effort to compile annual nutrient losses or “nutrient export coefficients” for various land uses in the United States was made in the early 1980s (Beaulac, 1980; Beaulac & Reckhow, 1982; Reckhow et al., 1980). Then building off that initial compilation, Harmel et al. (2006) developed the “Measured Annual Nutrient loads from AGricultural Environments” (MANAGE) database to make up‐to‐date data publicly available. MANAGE presents annual field‐scale dissolved, particulate, and total nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) runoff data from published studies of agricultural land uses (cultivated and grassland including improved pasture and rangeland). For each study, the database contains land use information, including crop rotations, grazing management, and artificial drainage; tillage category (no‐till, conservation, conventional, pasture); conservation practice category (waterway, terrace, filter strip, riparian buffer, contour farming); soil series and hydrologic soil group; soil test P and extractant; land slope, watershed size; and fertilizer formulation, rate, and application method (surface applied, incorporated, injected). Annual runoff volume, precipitation, and soil erosion data are also included when available. Subsequent updates to MANAGE included additional published studies, data fields (e.g., crop yield, nutrient uptake, timing of fertilizer application), N and P runoff concentration data, and forest land uses (Harmel et al., 2008, 2016; Table 1).1TABLESummary statistics for annual N and P runoff data from cultivated lands and grasslands in the original and updated MANAGE database versionsHarmel et al. (2006)Harmel et al. (2008)Harmel et al. (2016)Present workSite yearsa1,1031,6771,9803,326Publications (studies)b40556794Database recordsb163274330507Nutrient export dataLoadsLoads and concentrationsLoads and concentrationsLoads and concentrationsMajor additions–15 additional studies12 additional studies; crop yield, N and P uptake, fertilizer timing27 additional studies; Level II ecoregionaProduct of the number of sites and number of years.bIn some instances, data/information from paired publications are grouped and listed together as a single record.In addition to its original focus on N and P runoff, other researchers have expanded the MANAGE platform to include drainage studies. Specifically, Christianson and Harmel (2015a, 2015b), Christianson et al. (2016), and Hertzberger et al. (2019a, 2019b) added data from 79 studies of drainage N and P concentrations and loads mainly from the midwestern and eastern United States. In addition, the MANAGE database has been used for meta‐type analyses of management impacts on drainage nutrient losses (Flores et al., 2021; Hertzberger et al., 2019a; Liu et al., 2021; Zhao et al., 2016) and on the impact of agricultural conservation practices on nutrient losses in surface runoff (Nummer et al., 2018; Qian & Harmel, 2016; Reckhow et al., 2009). The database has also been used to evaluate modeling tool predictions of best management practices effectiveness, regional water balances, and regional ranges of runoff, sediment, and nutrient loss (e.g., Merriman et al., 2009; White et al., 2010, 2015a, 2015b). The objective of the present work is to publish and promote this contemporary data repository with up‐to‐date data from North American studies on N and P runoff from agricultural lands to assist with future analyses.DATASET CONSTRUCTIONIn this update, we added 27 studies and 1,346 additional site years to the MANAGE database. Specifically, we entered annual dissolved, particulate (sediment bound), total N and P runoff loads, precipitation, runoff, and erosion data along with descriptive data related to land use, land management, and site conditions for each treatment. We also included dissolved, particulate, and total N and P concentration data when available, but the present discussion focuses on annual N and P runoff loads.Core IdeasMANAGE presents annual N and P runoff data from the major U.S. agricultural regions.MANAGE contains descriptive data (e.g., land use, tillage, soil test P) as well as rainfall, runoff, and erosion data.This contemporary data repository is freely available from the USDA Ag Data Commons.In addition, we determined the Level II ecoregion (Omernik, 1987; Omernik & Griffith, 2014) for each study (Table 2). The 50 Level II ecoregions delineated in North America provide national and subcontinental overviews of ecological patterns (EPA, 2021), and we felt they were the most appropriate representation of the spatial distribution of N and P runoff. Level I was too coarse (15 ecoregions) and Level III too fine (182 ecoregions), and alternatives such as U.S. states or Canadian provinces do not adequately represent differences in soils, physiography, potential natural vegetation, and land uses.2TABLEMedian annual dissolved (Diss.), particulate (Part.), and total N and P runoff loads (kg/ha/yr, weighted by site years) for Level II ecoregionsLevel II ecoregionDominant land usesMajor data sourcesDiss. NPart. NTotal NDiss. PPart. PTotal Pkg ha−1 yr−17.1 Marine West Coast ForestCorn for silageBritish Columbia, Canada5.4 (n = 12)–43.5 (n = 12)––12.3 (n = 12)8.1 Mixed Wood PlainsCorn, grassland (grazed), and various rotationsWI, NY, and Canada3.0 (n = 97)–24.2 (n = 8)0.17 (n = 159)1.0 (n = 40)0.86 (n = 152)8.2 Central USA PlainsCorn and corn/soybean rotationsOn‐farm studies in OH1.6 (n = 76)–3.0 (n = 76)0.12 (n = 110)0.13 (n = 4)0.25 (n = 82)8.3 Southeastern USA PlainsCorn, grassland (hayed), and cotton/peanut rotationsUSDA‐ARS watersheds (Tifton, GA, Watkinsville, GA)3.1 (n = 170)0.32 (n = 80)11.1 (n = 46)0.17 (n = 196)1.7 (n = 67)1.5 (n = 69)8.4 Ozark‐Ouachita, App. ForestsCorn and grassland (grazed)USDA‐ARS watersheds (Booneville, AR, Coshocton, OH)1.0 (n = 366)1.2 (n = 188)4.9 (n = 442)0.80 (n = 664)0.15 (n = 308)0.97 (n = 552)8.5 Mississippi Alluvial and Southeast USA Coastal PlainsCorn, cotton, citrus, and sugar caneLouisiana State Univ., Univ. Ark, on‐farm study in FL3.3 (n = 44)1.5 (n = 7)4.9 (n = 28)0.48 (n = 40)0.92 (n = 7)3.0 (n = 49)9.2 Temperate PrairiesCorn, corn/soybean, and small grain rotationsManitoba, Canada, and Univ. Nebraska‐Lincoln1.7 (n = 362)21.0 (n = 193)11.7 (n = 262)0.23 (n = 566)1.9 (n = 199)0.73 (n = 599)9.3 West‐Central Semi‐Arid PrairiesWheat and wheat rotationsSaskatchewan, Canada0.40 (n = 24)–0.05 (n = 24)0.03 (n = 75)–0.00 (n = 24)9.4 South‐Central Semi‐Arid PrairiesGrassland (hayed and/or grazed), wheat, and wheat rotationsUSDA‐ARS watersheds (Riesel, TX, Woodward, OK, El Reno, OK)0.78 (n = 527)2.2 (n = 212)2.4 (n = 527)0.19 (n = 565)0.56 (n = 187)0.60 (n = 874)9.5 Texas‐Louisiana Coastal PlainSugar caneUniv. Louisiana‐Lafayette–––0.38 (n = 15)–1.5 (n = 15)11.1 Mediterranean CaliforniaGrassland (grazed)Univ. California5.1 (n = 1)–1.6 (n = 18)0.00 (n = 1)–0.03 (n = 18)Total site years by constituentn = 1,679n = 680n = 1,443n = 2,391n = 812n = 2,446DATASET SUMMARYOf the 50 Level II ecoregions in the United States and Canada, annual dissolved, particulate, or total N and P runoff load data are available for 11 ecoregions (Table 2; Figure 1, 2). Level II ecoregions such as Cold Deserts (10.1) are not represented in MANAGE because of arid conditions and limited runoff. Similarly, no data are available from the Upper Gila Mountains (13.1) or the Boreal Cordillera (6.1), which have few agricultural land uses. The database is publicly available on the USDA Ag Data Commons website (https://data.nal.usda.gov/dataset/measured‐annual‐nutrient‐loads‐agricultural‐environments‐manage‐database).1FIGUREThe number of site years of annual N runoff load data (dissolved, particulate, and total) in Level II ecoregions in North America2FIGUREThe number of site years of annual P runoff load data (dissolved, particulate, and total) in Level II ecoregions in North AmericaThe present analyses revealed considerable variability in the descriptive information/metadata reported by studies included in MANAGE. All 94 studies presented land use information for each treatment (and all 3,326 site years of data), and a vast majority included tillage information (99% of site years), watershed area (98% of site years), land slope (87% of site years), and P application rate (80% of site years). In contrast, fewer site years of data had associated fertilizer application timing (62%), fertilizer placement (66%), N application rate (50%), or crop yield (13%) information. Although these lower percentages may be partially attributed to factors such as references to corresponding studies with this information and to treatments that did not apply fertilizer and thus would not report fertilizer timing or placement, these instances do not account for all the cases of data omission. It is also interesting that data on precipitation, which is the driver of nutrient runoff, were reported for only 60% of site years. Data on other response variables such as runoff and erosion were reported for 86 and 73% of the site years. Eagle et al. (2017) classified these descriptive and response data (e.g., tillage, fertilizer, soil test P, rainfall, erosion) as “highly recommended (minimum requirements)” for nutrient management research and stressed their importance for future research, review studies, and meta‐analyses, in which the focus may or may not be the same as in the original study. We also strongly encourage that the descriptive and response data types as described in Eagle et al. (2017) be collected and reported in future nutrient loss studies to support research, policy, and management of nonpoint source nutrient runoff.FUTURE WORKWith summary data from the vast majority of relevant North American studies, MANAGE contains more than 3,000 site years of published annual N and P runoff data and corresponding metadata (e.g., land use and management, soil type, runoff, precipitation). Our team is currently working with data compiled in MANAGE to evaluate regional differences in N and P loss and the impacts of land use and management based on Level II ecoregions; however, analysis based on the 28 USDA Land Resource Regions (LRRs) or the finer‐scale USDA Major Land Resource Areas (MLRAs) would also be quite informative.As has been done since its development in 2006, we plan to update MANAGE periodically as guided by emerging needs and availability of additional studies. We also encourage other researchers to utilize the MANAGE platform to compile and summarize additional types of nutrient loss studies, as done for drainage by Christianson et al. (2016) and Hertzberger et al. (2019a, 2019b). One particular need is the inclusion of N and P runoff data from urban and industrial land uses. It is hoped the MANAGE database continues to prove valuable for additional scientific analyses, model evaluations, and management and policy decisions related to nutrient management and conservation planning.AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSR. Daren Harmel: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Methodology; Writing‐original draft. Peter Kleinman: Conceptualization; Data curation; Writing‐review & editing. Austin P. Hopkins: Conceptualization; Methodology; Writing‐review & editing. Paul Millhouser: Formal analysis; Methodology; Writing‐review & editing. Jim A Ippolito: Conceptualization; Writing‐review & editing. Debabrata Sahoo: Conceptualization; Writing‐review & editing.CONFLICT OF INTERESTThe authors declare no conflict of interest.REFERENCESBeaulac, M. N. (1980). Nutrient export coefficients: an examination of sampling design and natural variability within differing land uses [M.S. Thesis, Michigan State University].Beaulac, M. N., & Reckhow, K. H. (1982). An examination of land use‐nutrient export relationships. Water Resources Bulletin, 18(6), 1013–1024. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752‐1688.1982.tb00109.xChristianson, L. E., & Harmel, R. D. (2015a). The MANAGE drain load database: Review and compilation of more than fifty years of North American drainage nutrient studies. Agricultural Water Management, 159, 277–289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2015.06.021Christianson, L. E., & Harmel, R. D. (2015b). 4R water quality impacts: An assessment and synthesis of forty years of drainage nitrogen losses. Journal of Environmental Quality, 44, 1852–1860. https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2015.03.0170Christianson, L. E., Harmel, R. D., Smith, D., Williams, M. R., & King, K. (2016). Assessment and synthesis of 50 years of published drainage phosphorus losses. Journal of Environmental Quality, 45, 1467–1477. https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2015.12.0593Eagle, A. J., Christianson, L. E., Cook, R. L., Harmel, R. D., Miguez, F. E., Qian, S. S., & Ruiz Diaz, D. A. (2017). Meta‐analysis constrained by data: Recommendations to improve relevance of nutrient management research. Agronomy Journal, 109, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.2134/agronj2017.04.0215EPA. (2021). www.epa.gov/eco‐research/ecoregions‐north‐america (viewed November 11, 2021)Flores, L., Bailey, R. T., & Harmel, R. D (2021). Using nutrient transport data to identify the presence of surface inlets in regions with subsurface drainage. Journal of Environmental Quality, 50, 369–404. https://doi.org/10.1002/jeq2.20188Harmel, D., Potter, S., Casebolt, P., Reckhow, K., Green, C., & Haney, R. (2006). Compilation of measured nutrient load data for agricultural land uses in the uS. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 42(5), 1163–1178. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2006.tb05604.xHarmel, D., Qian, S., Reckhow, K., & Casebolt, P. (2008). The MANAGE database: Nutrient load and site characteristic updates and runoff concentration data. Journal of Environmental Quality, 37(6), 2403–2406. https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2008.0079Harmel, D. R., Christianson, L. E., Mcbroom, M. W., Smith, D. R., & Higgs, K. D. (2016). Expansion of the MANAGE database with forest and drainage studies. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 52(5), 1275–1279. https://doi.org/10.1111/1752‐1688.12438Hertzberger, A., Pittelkow, C. M., Harmel, R. D., & Christianson, L. E. (2019b). The MANAGE drain concentration database: A new tool compiling North American drainage nutrient concentrations. Agricultural Water Management, 216, 113–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2019.01.021Hertzberger, A. J., Pittelkow, C. M., Harmel, R. D., & Christianson, L. E. (2019a). Analysis of the MANAGE drain concentration database to evaluate agricultural management effects on drainage water nutrient concentrations. Transactions of ASABE, 62(4), 929–939. https://doi.org/10.13031/trans.13230Liu, W., Yuan, Y., & Koropeckyj‐Cox, L. (2021). Effectiveness of nutrient management on water quality improvement: A synthesis on nitrate‐nitrogen loss from subsurface drainage. Transactions of ASABE, 64(2), 675–689. https://doi.org/10.13031/trans.14078Merriman, K. R., Gitau, M. W., & Chaubey, I. (2009). A tool for estimating best management practice effectiveness in Arkansas. Applied Engineering in Agriculture, 25(2), 199–213. https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.26333Nummer, S. A., Qian, S. S., & Harmel, R. D (2018). A meta‐analysis on the effect of agricultural conservation practices on nutrient loss. Journal of Environmental Quality, 47, 1172–1178. https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2018.01.0036Omernik, J. M. (1987). Ecoregions of the conterminous united states. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 77(1), 118–125. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467‐8306.1987.tb00149.xOmernik, J. M., & Griffith, G. E. (2014). Ecoregions of the conterminous United States: Evolution of a hierarchical spatial framework. Environmental Management, 54(6), 1249–1266. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267‐014‐0364‐1Qian, S. S., & Harmel, R. D (2016). Applying statistical causal analyses to agricultural conservation: A case study examining p loss impacts. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 52(1), 198–208. https://doi.org/10.1111/1752‐1688.12377Reckhow, K. H., Beaulac, M., & Simpson, J. (1980). Modeling phosphorus loading and lake response under uncertainty: a manual and compilation of export coefficients. (EPA 440/5‐80‐011). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.Reckhow, K. H., Qian, S. S., & Harmel, R. D. (2009). A multilevel model of the impact of farm‐level BMPs on phosphorus runoff. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 45(2), 369–377. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2008.00298.xWhite, M., Gambone, M., Yen, H., Arnold, J., Harmel, D., Santhi, C., & Haney, R. (2015b). Regional blue and green water balances and use by selected crops in the u.S. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 51(6), 1626–1642. https://doi.org/10.1111/1752‐1688.12344White, M., Harmel, D., Yen, H., Arnold, J., Gambone, M., & Haney, R. (2015a). Development of sediment and nutrient export coefficients for U.S. ecoregions. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 51(3), 758–775. https://doi.org/10.1111/jawr.12270White, M. J., Storm, D. E., Busteed, P. R., Smolen, M. D., Zhang, H., & Fox, G. A. (2010). A quantitative phosphorus loss assessment tool for agricultural fields. Environmental Modelling and Software, 25(10), 1121–1129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2010.03.017Zhao, X. u., Christianson, L. E., Harmel, D., & Pittelkow, C. M. (2016). Assessment of drainage nitrogen losses on a yield‐scaled basis. Field Crops Research, 199, 156–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2016.07.015 http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Agricultural & Environmental Letters Wiley

Updates to the MANAGE database to facilitate regional analyses of nutrient runoff

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Wiley
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.
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2471-9625
DOI
10.1002/ael2.20095
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Abstract

ABBREVIATIONSMANAGEMeasured Annual Nutrient loads from AGricultural EnvironmentsINTRODUCTIONThe first effort to compile annual nutrient losses or “nutrient export coefficients” for various land uses in the United States was made in the early 1980s (Beaulac, 1980; Beaulac & Reckhow, 1982; Reckhow et al., 1980). Then building off that initial compilation, Harmel et al. (2006) developed the “Measured Annual Nutrient loads from AGricultural Environments” (MANAGE) database to make up‐to‐date data publicly available. MANAGE presents annual field‐scale dissolved, particulate, and total nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) runoff data from published studies of agricultural land uses (cultivated and grassland including improved pasture and rangeland). For each study, the database contains land use information, including crop rotations, grazing management, and artificial drainage; tillage category (no‐till, conservation, conventional, pasture); conservation practice category (waterway, terrace, filter strip, riparian buffer, contour farming); soil series and hydrologic soil group; soil test P and extractant; land slope, watershed size; and fertilizer formulation, rate, and application method (surface applied, incorporated, injected). Annual runoff volume, precipitation, and soil erosion data are also included when available. Subsequent updates to MANAGE included additional published studies, data fields (e.g., crop yield, nutrient uptake, timing of fertilizer application), N and P runoff concentration data, and forest land uses (Harmel et al., 2008, 2016; Table 1).1TABLESummary statistics for annual N and P runoff data from cultivated lands and grasslands in the original and updated MANAGE database versionsHarmel et al. (2006)Harmel et al. (2008)Harmel et al. (2016)Present workSite yearsa1,1031,6771,9803,326Publications (studies)b40556794Database recordsb163274330507Nutrient export dataLoadsLoads and concentrationsLoads and concentrationsLoads and concentrationsMajor additions–15 additional studies12 additional studies; crop yield, N and P uptake, fertilizer timing27 additional studies; Level II ecoregionaProduct of the number of sites and number of years.bIn some instances, data/information from paired publications are grouped and listed together as a single record.In addition to its original focus on N and P runoff, other researchers have expanded the MANAGE platform to include drainage studies. Specifically, Christianson and Harmel (2015a, 2015b), Christianson et al. (2016), and Hertzberger et al. (2019a, 2019b) added data from 79 studies of drainage N and P concentrations and loads mainly from the midwestern and eastern United States. In addition, the MANAGE database has been used for meta‐type analyses of management impacts on drainage nutrient losses (Flores et al., 2021; Hertzberger et al., 2019a; Liu et al., 2021; Zhao et al., 2016) and on the impact of agricultural conservation practices on nutrient losses in surface runoff (Nummer et al., 2018; Qian & Harmel, 2016; Reckhow et al., 2009). The database has also been used to evaluate modeling tool predictions of best management practices effectiveness, regional water balances, and regional ranges of runoff, sediment, and nutrient loss (e.g., Merriman et al., 2009; White et al., 2010, 2015a, 2015b). The objective of the present work is to publish and promote this contemporary data repository with up‐to‐date data from North American studies on N and P runoff from agricultural lands to assist with future analyses.DATASET CONSTRUCTIONIn this update, we added 27 studies and 1,346 additional site years to the MANAGE database. Specifically, we entered annual dissolved, particulate (sediment bound), total N and P runoff loads, precipitation, runoff, and erosion data along with descriptive data related to land use, land management, and site conditions for each treatment. We also included dissolved, particulate, and total N and P concentration data when available, but the present discussion focuses on annual N and P runoff loads.Core IdeasMANAGE presents annual N and P runoff data from the major U.S. agricultural regions.MANAGE contains descriptive data (e.g., land use, tillage, soil test P) as well as rainfall, runoff, and erosion data.This contemporary data repository is freely available from the USDA Ag Data Commons.In addition, we determined the Level II ecoregion (Omernik, 1987; Omernik & Griffith, 2014) for each study (Table 2). The 50 Level II ecoregions delineated in North America provide national and subcontinental overviews of ecological patterns (EPA, 2021), and we felt they were the most appropriate representation of the spatial distribution of N and P runoff. Level I was too coarse (15 ecoregions) and Level III too fine (182 ecoregions), and alternatives such as U.S. states or Canadian provinces do not adequately represent differences in soils, physiography, potential natural vegetation, and land uses.2TABLEMedian annual dissolved (Diss.), particulate (Part.), and total N and P runoff loads (kg/ha/yr, weighted by site years) for Level II ecoregionsLevel II ecoregionDominant land usesMajor data sourcesDiss. NPart. NTotal NDiss. PPart. PTotal Pkg ha−1 yr−17.1 Marine West Coast ForestCorn for silageBritish Columbia, Canada5.4 (n = 12)–43.5 (n = 12)––12.3 (n = 12)8.1 Mixed Wood PlainsCorn, grassland (grazed), and various rotationsWI, NY, and Canada3.0 (n = 97)–24.2 (n = 8)0.17 (n = 159)1.0 (n = 40)0.86 (n = 152)8.2 Central USA PlainsCorn and corn/soybean rotationsOn‐farm studies in OH1.6 (n = 76)–3.0 (n = 76)0.12 (n = 110)0.13 (n = 4)0.25 (n = 82)8.3 Southeastern USA PlainsCorn, grassland (hayed), and cotton/peanut rotationsUSDA‐ARS watersheds (Tifton, GA, Watkinsville, GA)3.1 (n = 170)0.32 (n = 80)11.1 (n = 46)0.17 (n = 196)1.7 (n = 67)1.5 (n = 69)8.4 Ozark‐Ouachita, App. ForestsCorn and grassland (grazed)USDA‐ARS watersheds (Booneville, AR, Coshocton, OH)1.0 (n = 366)1.2 (n = 188)4.9 (n = 442)0.80 (n = 664)0.15 (n = 308)0.97 (n = 552)8.5 Mississippi Alluvial and Southeast USA Coastal PlainsCorn, cotton, citrus, and sugar caneLouisiana State Univ., Univ. Ark, on‐farm study in FL3.3 (n = 44)1.5 (n = 7)4.9 (n = 28)0.48 (n = 40)0.92 (n = 7)3.0 (n = 49)9.2 Temperate PrairiesCorn, corn/soybean, and small grain rotationsManitoba, Canada, and Univ. Nebraska‐Lincoln1.7 (n = 362)21.0 (n = 193)11.7 (n = 262)0.23 (n = 566)1.9 (n = 199)0.73 (n = 599)9.3 West‐Central Semi‐Arid PrairiesWheat and wheat rotationsSaskatchewan, Canada0.40 (n = 24)–0.05 (n = 24)0.03 (n = 75)–0.00 (n = 24)9.4 South‐Central Semi‐Arid PrairiesGrassland (hayed and/or grazed), wheat, and wheat rotationsUSDA‐ARS watersheds (Riesel, TX, Woodward, OK, El Reno, OK)0.78 (n = 527)2.2 (n = 212)2.4 (n = 527)0.19 (n = 565)0.56 (n = 187)0.60 (n = 874)9.5 Texas‐Louisiana Coastal PlainSugar caneUniv. Louisiana‐Lafayette–––0.38 (n = 15)–1.5 (n = 15)11.1 Mediterranean CaliforniaGrassland (grazed)Univ. California5.1 (n = 1)–1.6 (n = 18)0.00 (n = 1)–0.03 (n = 18)Total site years by constituentn = 1,679n = 680n = 1,443n = 2,391n = 812n = 2,446DATASET SUMMARYOf the 50 Level II ecoregions in the United States and Canada, annual dissolved, particulate, or total N and P runoff load data are available for 11 ecoregions (Table 2; Figure 1, 2). Level II ecoregions such as Cold Deserts (10.1) are not represented in MANAGE because of arid conditions and limited runoff. Similarly, no data are available from the Upper Gila Mountains (13.1) or the Boreal Cordillera (6.1), which have few agricultural land uses. The database is publicly available on the USDA Ag Data Commons website (https://data.nal.usda.gov/dataset/measured‐annual‐nutrient‐loads‐agricultural‐environments‐manage‐database).1FIGUREThe number of site years of annual N runoff load data (dissolved, particulate, and total) in Level II ecoregions in North America2FIGUREThe number of site years of annual P runoff load data (dissolved, particulate, and total) in Level II ecoregions in North AmericaThe present analyses revealed considerable variability in the descriptive information/metadata reported by studies included in MANAGE. All 94 studies presented land use information for each treatment (and all 3,326 site years of data), and a vast majority included tillage information (99% of site years), watershed area (98% of site years), land slope (87% of site years), and P application rate (80% of site years). In contrast, fewer site years of data had associated fertilizer application timing (62%), fertilizer placement (66%), N application rate (50%), or crop yield (13%) information. Although these lower percentages may be partially attributed to factors such as references to corresponding studies with this information and to treatments that did not apply fertilizer and thus would not report fertilizer timing or placement, these instances do not account for all the cases of data omission. It is also interesting that data on precipitation, which is the driver of nutrient runoff, were reported for only 60% of site years. Data on other response variables such as runoff and erosion were reported for 86 and 73% of the site years. Eagle et al. (2017) classified these descriptive and response data (e.g., tillage, fertilizer, soil test P, rainfall, erosion) as “highly recommended (minimum requirements)” for nutrient management research and stressed their importance for future research, review studies, and meta‐analyses, in which the focus may or may not be the same as in the original study. We also strongly encourage that the descriptive and response data types as described in Eagle et al. (2017) be collected and reported in future nutrient loss studies to support research, policy, and management of nonpoint source nutrient runoff.FUTURE WORKWith summary data from the vast majority of relevant North American studies, MANAGE contains more than 3,000 site years of published annual N and P runoff data and corresponding metadata (e.g., land use and management, soil type, runoff, precipitation). Our team is currently working with data compiled in MANAGE to evaluate regional differences in N and P loss and the impacts of land use and management based on Level II ecoregions; however, analysis based on the 28 USDA Land Resource Regions (LRRs) or the finer‐scale USDA Major Land Resource Areas (MLRAs) would also be quite informative.As has been done since its development in 2006, we plan to update MANAGE periodically as guided by emerging needs and availability of additional studies. We also encourage other researchers to utilize the MANAGE platform to compile and summarize additional types of nutrient loss studies, as done for drainage by Christianson et al. (2016) and Hertzberger et al. (2019a, 2019b). One particular need is the inclusion of N and P runoff data from urban and industrial land uses. 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Journal

Agricultural & Environmental LettersWiley

Published: Jan 1, 2022

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