Nutrient and sediment concentrations, loads, yields, and rainfall characteristics at USGS surface and subsurface-tile edge-of-field agricultural monitoring sites in Great Lakes States (ver. 3.0, November 2024)

This data release provides computed rainfall (rain total, duration, intensity, erosivity and antecedent rainfall) and flow (flow volume, flow-weighted mean concentrations, total loads, and total yields) metrics from monitored precipitation, discharge, and water quality (nutrients and sediment concentrations) data collected at U.S. Geological Survey edge-of-field (EOF) monitoring sites located in five Great Lakes States (Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and New York). EOF monitoring sites are installed at the edge of agricultural fields, either on the field surface or using subsurface tiles, where runoff can be intercepted and channeled through monitoring equipment before it enters the natural stream system. The methods used to collect this data followed USGS EOF monitoring methods (https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/20081015/). These EOF monitoring sites are located at private farms under a variety of farming systems, landscape settings, drainage areas, soil types, and climates. Site information is provided in the ‘EOF_Site_Table.csv’ data table. Rainfall metrics were computed for EOF site locations and are provided in the ‘All_EOF_RainEvents.csv’ data table. Rainfall was directly monitored at many, but not every EOF monitoring site. EOF monitoring sites without on-site rainfall data were associated to rainfall data measured at a nearby EOF monitoring site or meteorological site. Rainfall was combined into a single event if it occurred within 2 hours of the previous rainfall. Flow data were computed for each flow event at each EOF monitoring site and are available in the ‘All_EOF_StormEventLoadsFormatted.csv’ data table. A flow event was defined as any period of flow at a site that was classified as a storm and represents flow that was related to rainfall or snowmelt. There were occurrences of continuous flow between rain events, which were not associated with a period of rainfall or snowmelt, likely due to excessive soil saturation or shallow groundwater discharge. These periods of intermittent tile discharge were not classified as a storm. Multiple precipitation and flow events were combined if they occurred within two hours of each other to account for similar rainfall/runoff characteristics. Rainfall metrics and flow data were then calculated for these combined events at each EOF monitoring site and available in the ‘All_EOF_StormEventLoadsRainCalculated.csv’ data table.

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  "geospatial"
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