Improving the management of surface waters draining agricultural areas to optimise the retention and recovery of Fe-associated P

ESR 3: Victoria Barcala

Supervisor: Dr. Leonard Osté (DELTARES) / Co-supervisor: Dr. Thilo Berends (Utrecht University)

Project description: ESR 3 will investigate Fe coupled P export from drained agricultural watersheds. This requires a number of steps. First of all the export from soils and sediments to surface water is important, particularly if water passes a strong redox gradient. Second, the processes in the surface water, such as precipitation, sorption, erosion and settling are important to quantify the transport of P and Fe within the surface water system, all the way to the sea. Next to the understanding of the system, ESR 3 will develop strategies optimising the retention of Fe-bound P. ESR 3 will perform both lab and field work. This will be combined with geochemical/ hydrological modelling for predicting long term behaviour of P-loaded Fe(III) oxides in drainage systems.

Secondments planned:

ARCADIS: New technologies for retention and recovery of P containing Fe phases in drained areas (3 months)

UU: Methods for Fe and P speciation in aquatic sediments (2 months)

KUL: Reactive transport modelling (quantitative description P retention in drains ) (1 month)