Journal of Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers ISSN:1738-3692(Print) 2093-7709(Online) 한국농공학회논문집

As livestock manure treatment is becoming a problem, manure application in forest plantation is recommended as an alternative. In this study, to investigate the impact due to liquid manure application in forest plantation, soil, soil water and shallow groundwater quality had been monitored in poplar experimental site where the liquid manure (LM) was applied. Water samples were collected weekly during growing season (April to October) from 2008 to 2011. From the monitoring results, phosphorus concentration in the soil and soil water had no significant difference between LM and control plots. NO₃-N concentration of soil water in LM, however, showed higher concentration (13.6 mg/l at 40 cm, 35.1 mg/l at 80 cm) than control plot (1.5 mg/l at 40 cm, 0.5 mg/l at 80 cm). In case of shallow groundwater quality, pH, heavy metal, etc. were satisfied to the national agricultural water quality standard of groundwater and there were no significant difference between upstream and downstream. The NO₃-N concentration of shallow groundwater was also not exceeded the national drinking water standard. However, NO₃-N concentration in soil water and downstream of shallow groundwater had increased in 2011 when non-composted LM was applied mostly in non-growing season of tree (September). From the results, it is important to control nitrogen source, application time and decomposed or not when LM is applied. In addition, to investigate nitrate source, further long-term monitoring and modelling could be necessary.