P Flux in Ditch Soil Mesocosms: the Effects of Pedologic and Hydraulic Treatments.

Agricultural drainage ditches are ubiquitous features of the landscape in many localities in the mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain. In Maryland drainage ditches occupy the same landscape as concentrated poultry operations, and drain the same landscapes to which phosphorus (P)-rich poultry litter has been applied for decades. We describe an experiment where intact soil mesocosms, taken from a drainage ditch on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, are subjected to hydraulic and pedologic treatments and the P chemistry of effluent water is subsequently measured. Preliminary results will be presented and discussed.