Sediment and nutrient loading to surface waters in 3 different scales

In agriculture, nutrient streams eddy from field blocks to receiving waterbodies as part of the hydrologic cycle. In the waterways, the nutrients circulate through the sediments, organisms and vegetation, and partly end up into the water again and flow into the next waterbody and finally into the sea. Agricultural nutrient fluxes in different scales have been studied and monitored since 1980s in i) experimental fields (e.g. Puustinen et al. 2005, Turtola et al. 2007 and Uusi-Kämppä 2005), ii) the small study catchments (Vuorenmaa et al. 2002, Tattari et al., 2017) and iii) large river basins (e.g. Ekholm et al. 2015).

Examination of such long-term data compiles phenomena at different scales and their total variations in simultaneous viewing, which is necessary to understand the nature and variation of nutrient flows. On the other hand, this is also necessary for the development of models and for the interlinking of models operating in different scales. Because the data is typically scattered in databases of different institutions or in the possession of individual scientists, it is worthwhile to pool the data together so that their value in the future is much greater than in the present situation. The pooling of data is part of a comprehensive examination of the nutrient cycles in drainage areas, catchments and river basins. Without perception of the importance and effects of these scales, understanding of the connections between agriculture, circular economy and water ecology remain incomplete.

Here, data from 6 experimental fields, 12 small study catchments and 32 large river basins in Finland have been compiled separately per each site on yearly and monthly basis including runoff (mm), arithmetic and flow-proportional mean concentrations (mg/l and µg/l), sediment and nutrient loads (kg/ha), cultivation practices (in experimental fields) and weather data (precipitation in mm and temperature in °C.