Data from: Organic production reduces subsurface nitrate leaching and maintains crop yields in US Mollisol

Metadata Updated: April 1, 2026

Organic production aims to diversify crop rotation and use organic fertilizer sources to build soil fertility and improve soil health indicators. This data evaluates the impact of organic farming on water quality in artificially drained midwestern Mollisols of central Iowa. This 7-year study compares tile nitrate loss and yields under three cropping systems: (1) conventional corn (Zea mays L)-soybean (Glycine max L.), (2) organic corn–soybean–oat (Avena sativa L.)/alfalfa (Medicago sativa L)–alfalfa, and (3) organic perennial pasture. Nitrogen (N) fertilization consisted of sidedress urea ammonium nitrate for conventional corn (168 kg N ha⁻¹) and spring-applied composted manure for organic corn (168 kg N ha⁻¹) and oats (56 kg N ha⁻¹). The dataset comprises of monthly values of subsurface drainage discharge, flow weighted nitrate concentrations, and the mass of nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) in drainage discharge for each of 30 corresponding experimental plots from 2014 to 2020. Dataset also includes annual harvested grain yields corrected to standard moisture content and above-ground biomass yields (excluding grain).

Resources in this dataset:

Resource Title: Field Operations.xlsx. Metadata information describing management practices and operations for each crop each year.
Resource Title: NitrateLoad_SubsurfaceDrainage_FWNC.csv. This dataset provides monthly values of Nitrate-N load, subsurface drainage discharge, and flow weighted nitrate concentrations from 2014 to 2020.
Resource Title Set: Yield_Alfalfa.csv, Yield_ConvCorn.csv, Yield_ConvSoybean.csv, Yield_Oat.csv, Yield_OrgCorn.csv, and Yield_OrgSoybean.csv. These datasets provide biomass and grain yields of conventional soybean and corn, organic soybean, corn, oats and alfalfa from 2014-2020.
Resource Title: Precipitation.csv. Cumulative monthly precipitation for the study location, 2014-2020. Monthly values were calculated from daily values from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet (https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/request/coop/fe.phtml).

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: us-pd

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date	April 1, 2026
Metadata Updated Date	April 1, 2026
Data Update Frequency	R/P1M

Metadata Source

Data.json Data.json Metadata
Download Metadata

Harvested from USDA JSON

Additional Metadata

Resource Type	Dataset
Metadata Created Date	April 1, 2026
Metadata Updated Date	April 1, 2026
Publisher	Agricultural Research Service
Maintainer	Rogovska, Natalia (natalia.rogovska@usda.gov) and Ruis, Sabrina (sabrina.ruis@usda.gov)
Identifier	10.15482/USDA.ADC/31370134.v1
Data Last Modified	2026-03-18
Category	geospatial
Public Access Level	public
Data Update Frequency	R/P1M
Bureau Code	005:18
Metadata Context	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id	2f50e6a4-cfbb-4482-a7f3-0d655efacc2b
Harvest Source Id	d3fafa34-0cb9-48f1-ab1d-5b5fdc783806
Harvest Source Title	USDA JSON
License	https://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
Metadata Type	geospatial
Old Spatial	{"type": "Point", "coordinates": -93.76698, 42.01944}
Program Code	005:040
Source Datajson Identifier	True
Source Hash	f491469f8129972b5af60d89fa41fb6cba62be544a926933825241d5bb27f8ab
Source Schema Version	1.1
Spatial	{"type": "Point", "coordinates": -93.76698, 42.01944}
Temporal	2014-01-01/2020-12-31

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