For years, growers in northwest Ohio have battled claims that farm runoff of phosphorus (P) is the cause of the extensive algae blooms that develop most years during the summer months in western Lake Erie.

These concerns are becoming more serious as Ohio voters earlier this year approved a Bill of Rights for Lake Erie, which allows citizens to sue on behalf of the lake when this large body of water is in danger of being harmed.

Considerable no-till is done in the areas around Toledo, where rivers and streams flow into Lake Erie. While no-till and cover crops have helped reduce erosion and runoff, there are still serious concerns about the impact P is having on expansion of the lake’s algae blooms, which more than tripled in size in 2018 when compared with previous years.

Need More Than No-Till

Since P is tied to soil particles, there’s a belief among many educators that no-till is an excellent way to reduce P loss in lakes and streams.

As reported in an article on the Corn & Soybean Digest website, a comprehensive analysis of 85 research studies conducted between 1985 and 2016 indicated no-till needs to be combined with other conservation strategies such as cover crops to overcome the growing concerns with increased amounts of dissolved P.

Three researchers on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis staff — Pierre-Andre Jacinthe, Lixin Wang and Stefani Daryanto — reviewed those studies, \which delved into soluble and particulate P concentration losses. These studies directly compared…