Phosphorus Leaching from Soil Cores from a Twenty-Year Study Evaluating Alum Treatment of Poultry Litter.

Adding alum to poultry litter is a best management practice used to stabilize P in less soluble forms, reducing nonpoint-source P runoff. However, little research has been conducted on how alum additions to litter affect subsequent leaching of P from soil. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of alum-treated versus untreated poultry litter on P leaching from soil cores receiving long-term poultry litter applications.

Reducing Phosphorus Runoff and Leaching from Poultry Litter with Alum: Twenty-Year Small Plot and Paired-Watershed Studies.

Treating poultry litter with alum has been shown to lower ammonia (NH) emissions and phosphorus (P) runoff losses. Two long-term studies were conducted to assess the effects of alum-treated poultry litter on P availability, leaching, and runoff under pasture conditions. From 1995 to 2015, litter was applied annually in a paired watershed study comparing alum-treated and untreated litter and in a small plot study comparing 13 treatments (an unfertilized control, four rates of alum-treated litter, four rates of untreated litter, and four rates of NHNO).

Use of selected chemical markers in combination with a multiple regression model to assess the contribution of domesticated animal sources of fecal pollution in the environment.

Human and animal wastes are major sources of environmental pollution. Reliable methods of identifying waste sources are necessary to specify the types and locations of measures that best prevent and mitigate pollution. This investigation demonstrates the use of chemical markers (fecal sterols and bile acids) to identify selected sources of fecal pollution in the environment.