Phosphorus losses from agricultural land to surface waters - SLU

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Impact of grazing and trampling by horses. Mohammed Masud Parvage. Master's Thesis in Soil Science. Soil and Water Management – Master's Programme.
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Department of Soil and Environment

Phosphorus losses from agricultural land to surface waters – Impact of grazing and trampling by horses Mohammed Masud Parvage

Master’s Thesis in Soil Science Soil and Water Management – Master’s Programme Examensarbeten, Institutionen för mark och miljö, SLU 2010:13

Uppsala 2010

SLU, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Faculty of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences Department of Soil and Environment Mohammed Masud Parvage Phosphorus losses from agricultural land to surface waters – Impact of grazing and trampling by horses Supervisor: Barbro Uhlén, Department of Soil and Environment, SLU Examiner: Lars Bergström, Department of Soil and Environment, SLU EX0430, Independent project/degree project in Soil Science, 30 credits, A2E Soil and Water Management – Master’s Programme 120 credits Series title: Examensarbeten, Institutionen för mark och miljö, SLU 2010:13 Uppsala 2010 Keywords: phosphorus, surface water, horse paddock, animal grazing, clay soil, agricultural land Online publication: http://stud.epsilon.slu.se Cover: A general view of the studied horse paddocks in the summer, photo by Pia Kynkäänniemi, 2009.

Abstract The number of horses in Sweden has increased in recent decades, reaching over 300,000 in 2009. The horses are kept on 300,000 ha representing 10% of total agricultural land in Sweden. This study characterised the potential risk of phosphorus (P) losses from a heavy clay soil used for horse grazing and feeding (paddock) and compared the losses with nearby arable land managed conventionally and losses from ungrazed pasture. Water-soluble phosphorus (WSP) concentration in surface soil (010 cm) from the paddock areas (mean 0.62 mg 100 g-1 soil) did not differ significantly from that in arable land, but differed very significantly (p