Data from: Strategic tillage of no-till decreased surface and subsurface losses of dissolved phosphorus

No-till is a cultivation practice in which plant seeds are applied in soil
without completely breaking up the surface of agricultural fields as,
e.g., in plowing. When growing annual crops, no-till is considered the
most effective way of controlling erosion and associated nutrient losses
to surface waters. The downside of long-term no-till, especially in soils
with modest inherent erosion, is phosphorus (P) enrichment of the
uppermost soil surface layer that causes an increase in dissolved P loss,
i.e., the most potent fraction of P losses causing eutrophication of
surface waters. As a remedy to dissolved P losses, occasional tillage,
also termed strategic tillage, of long-term no-till fields has been
suggested. We made strategic tillage of clay soil that has been under
no-till management for a decade and measured surface and subsurface P
losses during the following 4 yr. The study was made on a field, divided
into four 0.5-ha plots, in SW Finland. Surface and subsurface (tile
drainage) waters are collected and sampled for analyses
flow-propositionally. These supplemental data contain a description of the
field site and quarter-year sums of surface and subsurface discharges of
water, dissolved P, particulate P, and total P. Also, the outcomes of
statistical testing of the data are included. We found that strategic
tillage effectively (by about 60%) decreased the losses of dissolved P via
surface and subsurface discharge pathways. When the strategic tillage was
done in summer and a new crop was sown a week later, erosion-associated
particulate P losses only increased by about 10%. At the study site,
strategic tillage was preferred over continuous no-till and annual plowing
when searching for the least water eutrophication-fuelling tillage
methods.