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Weirs Control Phosphorus Transfer in Agricultural Watersheds

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Abstract

Sediments may act as a source or sink of ions from water, especially phosphorus (P). After the erosion process, the challenge is to retain suspended sediments inside the watershed area. We hypothesize that weir structures may mitigate P transfer from agricultural soils to aquatic systems. To test this, the present work aimed to evaluate P chemical fractions present in bottom sediments retained in the water reservoir of weirs built in two intensive agricultural watersheds and we discuss the sink/source behavior of these sediments. Samples of bottom sediments were collected from 12 reservoirs of weirs in two smalls Brazilian watersheds. Chemical P fractionation including adsorption and desorption kinetics was performed. Total P varied from 398 to 958 mg kg−1. The easily and potentially desorbed phosphorus were correlated with the clay content and the concentrations of Fe, Mn, and Al, extracted by ammonium oxalate and dithionite-citrate-bicarbonate solutions, which are the carriers of highly reactive functional groups with phosphate. Bottom sediments have high maximum adsorption capacity under unrestricted phosphorus supply condition, while under natural condition (low anthropogenic pressure), the sediments were not saturated and therefore low desorption occurred. Only 1.34% and 7.75% of total P was in readily and potentially bioavailable P forms. The bottom sediments accumulated in reservoirs from anthropogenic areas acted as P source to water, while those from preserved areas (natural pasture or riparian forest) acted as sink of P from water. The storage of water and sediment contaminated with P in reservoir of weirs may be an efficient and temporary practice to mitigate the transfer of P to watercourses.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the support of Letícia Moro.

Funding

The authors thank the Coordination of Improvement of Higher-Level Personel, (CAPES-COFECUB program: 3504-11-5) and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Brazil) for financial support (458553/2014-0), as well as fellowships awarded to E.C. Bortoluzzi (304676/2019-5) and D.S. Rheinheimer (309515/2015-7). The authors acknowledge financial support from the European Union (ERDF) and “Région Nouvelle Aquitaine.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Soil Departament, Federal University of Santa Maria, Av. Roraima, 1000, CEP, Santa Maria, RS, 97105-900, Brazil

    Danilo Rheinheimer dos Santos & Gilmar Luiz Schaefer

  2. Federal Technological University of Paraná, Dois Vizinhos, Estrada para Boa Esperança, Km04, CEP, Dois Vizinhos, PR, 85660-000, Brazil

    André Pellegrini

  3. National University of Asuncion, San Lorenzo, Paraguay

    Jimmy Walter Rasche Alvarez

  4. University of Poitiers, UMR 7285 IC2MP-HydrASA, TSA 51106, 5 rue Albert Turpain, 86073, Poitiers Cedex 9, France

    Laurent Caner

  5. Laboratory of Land Use and Natural Resources, University of Passo Fundo, Campus I, BR 285, km 292, Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, 99052-900, Brazil

    Edson Campanhola Bortoluzzi

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  1. Danilo Rheinheimer dos Santos
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  2. Gilmar Luiz Schaefer
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  3. André Pellegrini
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  4. Jimmy Walter Rasche Alvarez
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  6. Edson Campanhola Bortoluzzi
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Appendix

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Table 7 Physical and chemical soil characteristics, in the 0–10 cm layer, in different soil use and management in the two watersheds from the south of Brazil
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dos Santos, D.R., Schaefer, G.L., Pellegrini, A. et al. Weirs Control Phosphorus Transfer in Agricultural Watersheds. Water Air Soil Pollut 231, 486 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-020-04833-2

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