Grassed Buffer Strips as Nitrate Diffuse Pollution Remediation Tools: Management Impact on the Denitrification Enzyme Activity

The management of grassed buffer strips proved to be an efficient remediation technique in controlling nitrogen losses to surface water. In south Belgium, agri-environmental policies have encouraged farmers to seed buffer strips along rivers, in zones where the soil was previously devoted to agricultural production. We wanted to assess how important denitrification is in a buffer strip in comparison with a cropped field. The study investigated the denitrifiying enzyme activity (DEA) of two contiguous buffer strips with different management stories. The eastern part of the buffer strip was seeded in 1999. The western part of the buffer strip is a piece of crop field abandoned by the farmer 20 years ago and not managed for the last 10 years. This experimental study demonstrates that the denitrification enzyme activity in a riparian buffer strip is significantly higher than in the adjacent cropped field (3.67 and 2.12 mgNkg(-1)d(-1) respectively). The DEA was significantly different between the two buffer strips under comparison, assessing that the management of the buffer strips has a dominant effect on DEA. The old unmown buffer strip is potentially more efficient in the nitrate removal process than the 6-year-old seeded buffer strip.