_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Corresponding author: E-mail: nfavaretto@ufpr.br, fernandobortolozo@gmail.com; International Journal of Plant & Soil Science 4(5): XX-XX, 2015; Article no.IJPSS.2015.042 ISSN: 2320-7035 SCIENCEDOMAIN international www.sciencedomain.org Water, Sediment and Nutrient Retention in Native Vegetative Filter Strips of Southern Brazil Fernando Rodrigo Bortolozo 1 , Nerilde Favaretto 1* , Jeferson Dieckow 1 , Anibal de Moraes 2 , Fabiane Machado Vezzani 1 and Éder David Borges da Silva 1 1 Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, Federal University of Paraná, Rua dos Funcionários, 1540, 80035-050, Curitiba, Brazil. 2 Department of Plant Production, Federal University of Paraná, Rua dos Funcionários, 1540, 80035- 050, Curitiba, Brazil. Authors’ contributions This work was carried out in collaboration of all authors. Author FRB designed the study, managed the field work, performed the laboratory analyses, interpreted the data and wrote the first draft of the manuscript as part of the master dissertation at Soil Science Graduate Program of Federal University of Paraná State, Brazil. Author NF, advisor professor, helped on the study design, field work, laboratory analyses, interpretation of data, and final manuscript. Authors JD, AM and FMV, co-advisor professor, helped on the study design, field work, laboratory analyses, and interpretation of data. Author EDBS managed the statistical analyses. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Article Information DOI: 10.9734/IJPSS/2015/13788 Editor(s): (1) (2) Reviewers: (1) (2) (3) Complete Peer review History: Received 3 rd September 2014 Accepted 20 th October 2014 Published 14 th November 2014 ABSTRACT Vegetative filter strips (VFS) are areas adjacent to watercourses with the purpose of reducing sediment and nutrients contained within runoff water from cropland. The aim of this study was to evaluate the retention of water, sediment and nutrients in VFSs with 5, 10, 20 and 30 m widths exposed to simulated runoff water. The VFS chosen for this study were populated by native herbaceous vegetation with a predominance of grasses from South of Brazil. To simulate runoff water, a flow of 30 L min -1 was applied to all plots. Simulated runoff water contained 3.22 g L -1 of sediment and the nutrients concentration was 62.2; 40.9 and 170.3 mg L -1 de P, NH 4 -N and NO 3 -N, Original Research Article