Stack, B., Fraley-McNeal, L., Fox,J., Christianson, R. 2018. Finding and Adding Agricultural BMP Performance Studies to the Agricultural BMP Database. Prepared by Center for Watershed Protection, Inc. and University of Illinois for The Water Research Foundation. The Water Research Foundation (WERF), Alexandria VA.WRF ISBN: 978-1-60573-366-1

Keywords: Agricultural BMP Database, agriculture, water quality, research studies, Midwest, Chesapeake Bay.

The Agricultural Best Management Practice Database (AgBMPDB) was created as a central repository to provide scientifically based information on practices that reduce pollutant loading from agricultural sites. During the creation of the database, a substantial number of agricultural BMP research studies were entered, however, there is a significant amount of published, peer-reviewed literature suitable for entry that has not yet been included. This project involved entering peer-reviewed agricultural BMP studies from the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and Upper Midwest (Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa) into the AgBMPDB.

This project tested how readily assessable other studies were for database entry, how well-known the database is among researchers, the willingness of research partners to allow their data to be shared in the database, and the level of time and effort to review, assemble, and input the data. The Center for Watershed Protection (Center) teamed with the University of Illinois and completed data entry spreadsheets for eight studies in the upper Midwest (Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa) and eight studies in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed (Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New York) in preparation for their addition to the AgBMPDB.

Benefits:
• Contributes to the growth of the Agricultural Best Management Practice Database (AgBMPDB).
• Provides federal, state, and local environmental agencies with quantitative information on the effectiveness of individual practices for addressing sediment and nutrients.
• Identifies studies in different regions that may help identify potential causes of regional and agricultural activity differences in BMP effectiveness.