Effect of Polyacrylamide Application on Water and Nutrient Movements in Soils

An understanding of nutrient movement in soil is important for developing management strategies to minimize nutrient leaching and surface movement, thus improving nutrient uptake by plants, maintaining a sustainable soil system, and even protecting groundwater quality. Polyacrylamide (PAM) is known as one of soil conditioner that functions to stabilize soil structure, increase infiltration, and reduce surface runoff. This study assesses the effects of PAM on the vertical movement of soil-water and major/minor nutrients (NO3-N, NH3-N, T-N, PO4-P, T-P, K, Ca, Mg, and Fe) in soils. Saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) increases with increasing PAM concen- trations up to 10 mg·L-1 for sand and 20 mg·L-1 for a mixture of sand and clay. Decreases in the loss of soluble nutrients, particularly NH3-N, PO4-P and T-P, are observed as PAM concentrations increase. In contrast, PAM concentration has no effect on nitrate and minor nutrient levels. These results indicate that the application of PAM may be a viable method for protecting water bodies from excessive nutrients and improving nutrient availability for plants.