Assessment of the use of sediment fences for control of erosion and sediment phosphorus loss after potato harvesting on sloping land

Abstract

In humid temperate areas, after harvest of potatoes, it is difficult to prevent soil erosion and diffuse pollution. In some autumn weather conditions, in-field mitigation such as cultivation or sowing are not possible, while edge of field measures can be costly and inflexible. We have assessed the potential of modified sediment fences, widely used on building sites, for erosion mitigation post-harvest of potato crops. Field scale assessments were conducted on fields in the Lunan catchment, eastern Scotland. Sediment retention was estimated by two methods: a topographic survey method using a hand held Real Time Kinematic Global Positioning System (RTK-GPS), and direct measurement of sediment depth using a graduated cane.In the 2010/11 trial the main fence comprised 70m of entrenched fine mesh (0.25mm) and coarser mesh (4mm) fabric pinned to a contour fence near the base of the field. This retained an estimated 50.9m3 (80.2tonnes) of sediment, with weighted mean total P (TP) content of 0.09 % in the<2mm soil fraction. In the 2011/12 trial, the main 146m fence was of intermediate mesh size (1.2mm). The fence was partitioned into nine upslope plots, with 3 replicates of each of 3 cultivation methods: T1 (full grubbing — a light, tined cultivator), T2 (partial grubbing) and T3 (no grubbing). Average plot slopes ranged from 9.9 to 11.0 %. The amounts of TP accumulating as sediment at the fences were: 9.3 (sd=7.8), 11.8 (sd=10.2) and 25.7 (sd=5.8)kgP/ha of upslope plot for the T1, T2 and T3 treatments respectively.