Phosphorus retention in saturated riparian buffers

Title: Evaluating phosphorus retention in saturated riparian buffers

Practice: Edge-of-Field

Location: Central Iowa - 3 sites

Time Period: 2025 -2027

Research Team: Wenjuan Huang, Thomas Isenhart, Gabriel Johnson, William Crumpton 

Project Description:  Saturated riparian buffers (SRBs) represent an established edge-of-field conservation practice to reduce transport of nitrogen from tile drained agricultural field to surface waters. Although SRBs have been shown to be effective for nitrate-nitrogen removal in tile-drained landscapes, their impacts on phosphorus retention remain unclear, hindering inference of their broader benefits of SRBs beyond nitrogen reduction. This project aims to quantify phosphorus retention performance of SRBs and examine potential linkages between nitrogen removal and phosphorus retention. We leverage three long-term monitored SRBs (LT-5, BC-2 and SH-1) in central Iowa. We quantify phosphorus loads to SRBs, evaluate phosphorus retention within SRBs, and investigate relationships between phosphorus retention and nitrogen removal in SRBs. This project can improve our understanding of phosphorus dynamics within SRBs and the relationships with nitrogen removal, thereby informing SRB design criteria.

Publications:

Funders: Iowa Nutrient Research Center