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Water Quality Assessment on Organic Plots under Conventional and Tillage Systems in Upper French Broad Watershed with APEX Model

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  TMDL 2010: Watershed Management to Improve Water Quality Proceedings, 14-17 November 2010 Hyatt Regency Baltimore on the Inner Harbor, Baltimore, Maryland USA  711P0710cd.(doi:10.13031/2013.35785)
Authors:   Kieu Ngoc Le, Katherine R Suda, Manuel R Reyes
Keywords:   Upper French Broad, APEX model, organic production, water quality, modeling

The Upper French Broad is impacted by the sediment from agriculture and urban sources. Research is ongoing at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research Station in Mills River, N.C. to evaluate surface water and groundwater quality from organic (managed organically for 15 years and undergoing organic certification) and conventional systems that have the same crop (continuous sweet corn with winter cover crops_ wheat and crimson clover) system and the same amount of N fertilizer applied from different sources. The Agricultural Policy Environmental Extender (APEX) is used to assess the long term impact of organic plots on surface water (nutrients and sediment) and groundwater quality (nutrients) under conventional and conservation tillage systems. APEX predictions on the control and four treatments will be shown: organic vegetable in conventional tillage system, organic vegetable in conservation tillage system, non-organic vegetable in conventional tillage system, and non-organic vegetable in conservation tillage system. There will be no comparisons of predictions with mean measured observed values. Data collection in the plots just started. This research may extend the application of APEX for simulating organic systems and may confirm its applicability for use in the Piedmont.

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