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The Unreliability of Tile Effluent for Monitoring Subsurface Nitrate-Nitrogen Losses from Soils¹

ABSTRACT

Investigation of a completely tiled field showed that only a small proportion of the total flow reaching the drainage ditch came from tile effluent. In two measurements, 63 and 89% of the flow to the drainage ditch came from seepage other than through tiles. The nitrate-nitrogen concentrations in the tile effluent were far higher than those calculated in the nontile flow by mass balance. We conclude that nitrate-nitrogen concentrations in tile effluents may not be reliable indicators of nitrate-nitrogen losses from agricultural land, when the tiles do not intercept all subsurface flow.

Key Words: mass balance • drainage • denitrification

¹ The work on which this report was based was supported in part by the Office of Water Resources Research, Department of The Interior, under the provisions of Public Law 88-379, as Project Number A-024-Ky. This paper (no. 72-3-112) is published with the approval of the Director of the Kentucky Agr. Exp. Sta.

² Professor of Agronomy and Associate Professor of Agricultural Engineering, respectively.

Received for publication June 6, 1973.