Agricultural water quality priorities: A symposium overview

Abstract

To meet the global needs of a growing population, both increased productivity and additional land may need to be dedicated to agriculture. However, to effectively evaluate the impact of new farming strategies and agricultural chemicals on the environment, a broad perspective is needed to prevent simply shifting pollution from one part of the hydrologic cycle to another. The loss of agricultural chemicals to the environment may include a combination of processes such as volatilization, runoff and leaching, each exhibiting considerable spatial and temporal dependency. Subsequent losses of agricultural chemicals to the environment may also be transported offsite,having a potential detrimental effect on the environment. This overview provides a brief introduction to the papers presented at a special USDAARS symposium entitled″Agricultural Water Quality Priorities, A Team Approach to Conserving Natural Resources″.