Walker Leads on Phosphorus BMP Factsheets


With funding from the USDA-NRCS, Dr. Forbes Walker of the Biosystems Engineering & Soil Science department is heading up a national effort to draft, publish, and post on the internet a series of factsheets on best management practices (BMPs) to reduce losses of phosphorus from agriculture. This involves coordinating contributors from industry, fourteen universities, and eleven state USDA-ARS offices.

While phosphorus is a needed plant nutrient, its delivery into surface waters increases the growth of undesirable algae and aquatic weeds, causes oxygen depletion in the water, and can cause severe water quality problems that affect both animals and humans.


USDA-NRCS
The series of thirty-two phosphorus factsheets can be broadly divided into three groups: (1) practices that have an impact on the type or source of phosphorus (Source BMPs), (2) practices that affect the transport of phosphorus (Transport BMPs), and (3) practices that have an impact on both the source and transport of phosphorus (Source and Transport BMPs).

The factsheets are available online at: www.sera17.ext.vt.edu/SERA_17_Publications.htm
 
 
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