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)..., The data are from a 2-ha field in SW Finland where surface and subsurface discharges are measured and sampled. In the field, three tillage options were applied: annual plowing, continuous no-till, and no-till that was plowed one time in the summer of 2018. Included in the data are discharge water volumes and P losses via surface and subsurface pathways during four years. The data are calculated as quarter-year sums from Aug 2018 to Aug 2022., , # Data from: Strategic tillage of no-till decreased surface and subsurface losses of dissolved phosphorus

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These datasets accompany the above publication, presenting details on the field setup, numbers behind the data presented in figures and statistical analyses, and details on statistical testing results. Files are ordered in four folders:

* Figures FigS1_FigS3 and captions:
\-- FigS1 (jpg) shows the Jokioinen/Kotkanoja fields's subsurface drainage layout, dimensions of the field, and a photo showing how flow-proportional water samples are collected
\-- FigS2 (jpg) shows quarter-year sums of precipitation and mean air temperature during the study, number of successive days with at least 10 cm of snow cover each winter during the study, and maximum snow depth (with date)
\-- FigS3 (jpg) presents the cumulative discharge of total P during the study; shown are surface, subsurface, and their summed losses
\-- Figure cap...