Quantifying the spatiotemporal variability of nitrate in irrigation water across the Wisconsin Central Sands

Abstract

The Wisconsin Central Sands is home to large scale vegetable production on sandy soils and managed with frequent irrigation, fertigation, and widespread nitrogen fertilizer application, all of which make the region highly susceptible to nitrate loss to groundwater. While the groundwater is used as the primary source of drinking water for many communities and rural residences across the region, it is also used for irrigation. Considering the high levels of nitrate found in the groundwater, it has been proposed that growers more accurately account for the nitrate in their irrigation water as part of nitrogen management plans. Our objectives were to 1) determine the magnitude of nitrate in irrigation water, 2) quantify the spatiotemporal variability of nitrate, and 3) determine key predictors of nitrate concentration in the region. We sampled irrigation water from 38 fields across six farms from 2018 to 2020. Across the 3 years of our study, nitrate concentration varied more across space than time. On average, our samples were tested at 19.0 mg L⁻¹ nitrate-nitrogen, or nearly two times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) threshold for safe drinking water, equivalent to 48.1 kg ha⁻¹ of applied nitrate-nitrogen with 25.4 cm (or 10 in.) of irrigation. To better understand the spatiotemporal variability in nitrate levels, week of sampling, year, well depth, well casing, and nitrogen application rate were analyzed for their role as predictor variables. Based on our linear mixed effects model, nitrogen application rate was the greatest predictor of the nitrate concentration of irrigation water (p < 0.05).