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Artigo Acesso aberto Produção Nacional Revisado por pares

BIBTEX RIS

Phosphorus transfer at a small catchment in southeastern Brazil: distributed modelling in different land use scenarios

2017; UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE LAVRAS; Volume: 41; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1590/1413-70542017415012217

1981-1829

Diêgo Faustolo Alves Bispo, Marx Leandro Naves Silva, João José Marques, Marianne Bechmann, Pedro Velloso Gomes Batista, Nilton Curi,

Hydrology and Watershed Management Studies

ABSTRACT Identifying and ranking nutrient loss risk areas are important steps towards integrated catchment management. This study aimed to apply the P index model at the Posses catchment, south of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. We applied the P index for the current land use at the Posses catchment and for two hypothetical scenarios: scenario 1, in which P fertilizer was applied to all land uses, except for native forests; and scenario 2, which considered the use of P fertilizer as in scenario 1, and that the Environmental Protection Areas referring to the riparian forests and springs were totally restored. Considering current land use, almost the whole catchment area (91.4%) displayed a low P loss risk. The highest P index was associated to croplands and eucalyptus plantations. Regarding scenario 1, areas under pasture fell into the low (15.1%), medium (45.5%), high (27.1%) and very high (12.3%) P index categories. Environmental Protection Areas on scenario 2 decreased the P loss risk from the scenario 1 in 37.6%. Hence, the model outputs indicate that the reforestation of buffer zones can decrease P loss risk in the case increasing use of P fertilizer. The P index model is a potential support tool to promote judicious use of fertilizers and conservation practices at the Posses catchment.