A Mississippi State University study has confirm the success of a unexampled proficiency to reduce food in water overspill and protect downstream water supply , including the Gulf of Mexico .
weir , also known as verification dams , are small dams used to amass water overflow from agricultural fields . Weirs are often the sizing of a drainage ditch , with a 2 - understructure communication channel in the midpoint for urine drain . The weir are concrete and can be impress to various locations in a drainage ditch .
“ As water from farming landing field drains , high concentrations of fertiliser food , such as nitrogen and phosphorus , can be carry downstream , ” say Robbie Kröger , supporter professor of aquatic science in the MSU Department of Wildlife , Fisheries and Aquaculture . “ These nutrient promote algal production and microbial rot in downstream coastal ecosystem like the Gulf of Mexico , which in bout minify life-sustaining atomic number 8 levels . ”
Farmers throughout the Mississippi Delta have been protect water character for eld and are now using weirs as a humbled - cost method acting to immediately reduce alimentary runoff . “Drainage ditches on farm trickle and interpolate nutrients before H2O reaches rivers , ” Kröger say . “ weir can cater legion locations along the drainage ditch for nutrients to be absorbed and transformed . ”
Most agrarian land is drain through a slotted riser pipeline that can be board to retain water within the drain ditch . A tobacco pipe run out aside the piss .
“ Several weir can be step - step throughout the drainage ditch to bring home the bacon maximum nutrient retentiveness , ” Kröger says .
Wherever a weir is put in , water collect to form a miniature wetland , which may ameliorate harvest return by tote up moisture to the field . Scientists in the MSU Forest and Wildlife Research Center and Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station are optimistic that the weirs will better both nutrient retentiveness and irrigation efficiency .
Funded by the Mississippi - Alabama Sea Grant Consortium , the subject field evaluated the impingement of miserable - class weir in an observational blueprint .
“ Our aim was to compare weired and slotted - pipe systems for nourishing reduction during simulated violent storm overspill events , ” Kröger says .
Results argue that the weir dispatch contamination effectively . Weirs and outlets alone , however , can not foreshorten nutrient runoff . flora is want to absorb and retain nutrients . A novel projection funded by the Environmental Protection Agency ’s Gulf of Mexico Program is judge how weir , slotted pipes and flora drainage ditches contribute to overall watershed nutrient reductions .
“ Mississippi is one of the first states to enforce vegetive drain in agricultural ditch as part of the USDA ’s Natural Resources Conservation Service ’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program , ” Kröger say . This program offer fiscal and technical aid to participants who install or implement structural and direction practice on eligible agrarian land .
“ Mississippi ’s story with EQIP and the observational research done on weir have positioned the university well , ” Kröger says . “ We call for to understand how all these structures interact in the athletic field , at the landmark or farm scale of measurement to assess their overall impact on downstream water quality . ”
Kröger , the university ’s only attest professional wetland scientist , is not alone in his efforts to improve downstream body of water character in river and flow . The research is a collaborative try between the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality , Yazoo Mississippi Delta Joint Water Management District , Delta Farmers Advocating Resource Management , USDA Agricultural Research Service , U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers .
The determination of the inquiry is to foreshorten compactness of local nutrients before they reach the Gulf of Mexico . Scientists are attempting to better understand how nitrogen and daystar move through streams to the Mississippi River and then to the Gulf of Mexico . Excessive nutrient loads may result in an overall decay in the coastal thriftiness .
Kröger emphasized the pauperization to remain focussed on protect inland and coastal water , especially in the Wake Island of the Deep Horizon oil release in the Gulf of Mexico .
“ landscape painting stewardship , improve urine quality and ameliorate downstream aquatic ecosystem health will help oneself in the oil spill clean - up sweat , ” Kröger says . “ A hefty river push the oil seaward , keeping it at bay and protect the Ngaio Marsh , estuaries and spawning grounds for fishery , which will aid in the regaining of the Gulf Coast . ”
