Evaluation of the RothC model as a prognostic tool for the prediction of SOC trends in response to management practices on arable land

Geoderma ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 337 ◽  
pp. 463-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rene Dechow ◽  
Uwe Franko ◽  
Thomas Kätterer ◽  
Hartmut Kolbe
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Prognostic Tool ◽  
Rothc Model

Source apportionment of riverine nitrogen transport based on catchment modelling

1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 109-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans B. Wittgren ◽  
Berit Arheimer
Keyword(s):  
Source Apportionment ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
River Mouth ◽  
Point Sources ◽  
Nitrogen Transport ◽  
Total N ◽  
Management Measures

Source apportionment of river substance transport, i.e. estimation of how much each source in each subbasin contributes to the river-mouth transport, is a vital step in achieving the most efficient management practices to reduce pollutant loads to the sea. In this study, the spatially lumped (at sub-catchment level), semi-empirical PULSE hydrological model, with a nitrogen routine coupled to it, was used to perform source apportionment of nitrogen transport in the Söderköpingsån river basin (882 km2) in south-eastern Sweden, for the period 1991–93. The river basin was divided into 28 subbasins and the following sources were considered: land leakage from the categories forest, arable and ley/pasture; point sources, and; atmospheric deposition on lake surfaces. The calibrated model yielded an explained variance of 60%, based on comparison of measured and modelled river nitrogen (Total N) concentrations. Eight subbasins, with net contributions to the river-mouth transport exceeding 3 kg ha−1 yr−1, were identified as the most promising candidates for cost efficient nitrogen management. The other 20 subbasins all had net contributions below 3 kg ha−1 yr−1. Arable land contributed 63% of the nitrogen transport at the river mouth and would thus be in focus for management measures. However, point sources (18% contribution to net transport) should also be considered due to their relatively high accessibility for removal measures (high concentrations). E.g., the most downstream subbasin, with the largest wastewater treatment plant in the whole river basin, had a net contribution of 16 kg ha−1 yr−1. This method for source apportionment may provide authorities with quantitative information about where in a river basin, and at which sources, they should focus their attention. However, once this is done, an analysis with higher resolution has to be performed in each of the interesting subbasins, before decisions on actual management measures can be taken.

Enhancing ecosystem services with no-till

2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Lal
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Soil Depth ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Economic Incentives ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Water Retention Capacity ◽  
No Till ◽  
Trade Offs

AbstractEcosystem functions and services provided by soils depend on land use and management. The objective of this article is to review and synthesize relevant information on the impacts of no-till (NT) management of croplands on ecosystem functions and services. Sustainable management of soil through NT involves: (i) replacing what is removed, (ii) restoring what has been degraded, and (iii) minimizing on-site and off-site effects. Despite its merits, NT is adopted on merely ∼9% of the 1.5 billion ha of global arable land area. Soil's ecosystem services depend on the natural capital (soil organic matter and clay contents, soil depth and water retention capacity) and its management. Soil management in various agro-ecosystems to enhance food production has some trade-offs/disservices (i.e., decline in biodiversity, accelerated erosion and non-point source pollution), which must be minimized by further developing agricultural complexity to mimic natural ecosystems. However, adoption of NT accentuates many ecosystem services: carbon sequestration, biodiversity, elemental cycling, and resilience to natural and anthropogenic perturbations, all of which can affect food security. Links exist among diverse ecosystem services, such that managing one can adversely impact others. For example, increasing agronomic production can reduce biodiversity and deplete soil organic carbon (SOC), harvesting crop residues for cellulosic ethanol can reduce SOC, etc. Undervaluing ecosystem services can jeopardize finite soil resources and aggravate disservices. Adoption of recommended management practices can be promoted through payments for ecosystem services by a market-based approach so that risks of disservices and negative costs can be reduced either through direct economic incentives or as performance payments.

scholarly journals The Influence of Permanent Grasslands on Nitrate Nitrogen Loads in Modelling Approach

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Śmietanka
Keyword(s):  
Water Pollution ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Nitrate Nitrogen ◽  
Swat Model ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Intensive Agriculture ◽  
Catchment Management ◽  
Small Catchment ◽  
Nitrogen Loads

Abstract The water pollution in areas with intensive agriculture is growing rapidly. Computer model is a tool which can help in finding solutions for water pollution reduction and help in creation of catchment management plans. In this research the SWAT model (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) was used to test the influence of introduction of permanent grasslands into the catchment on nitrate nitrogen load in surface water. Small catchment of upper Zgłowi?czka River in central Poland with intensive agriculture was chosen as a test site. Model was fed with data about land use, soils, weather, elevation and management practices and calibrated and validated using flow data and nitrate nitrogen loads data. Then 2 scenarios with land use change were tested. A part of arable land was changed into permanent grasslands. The results show that permanent grasslands are effective in reducing nitrate nitrogen load. The load was reduced by 19% when permanent grasslands constituted 10% of arable land and by 38% with permanent grasslands taking up 20% of arable land.

scholarly journals Ecological illiteracy can deepen farmers' pesticide dependency

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kris Wyckhuys ◽  
KL Heong ◽  
Francisco Sanchez-Bayo ◽  
Felix Bianchi ◽  
Jonathan Lundgren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Ecological Literacy ◽  
Ecological Concepts ◽  
Knowledge Intensive

Over 2.5 billion smallholders cultivate the world’s arable land, strategically positioned to tackle multiple Anthropocene challenges. When consciously adopting ecologically-based pest management practices, they can improve resource use efficiency, slow biodiversity loss, resolve environmental pollution and safeguard human health. Yet, the effective implementation of knowledge-intensive management practices requires underlying ecological concepts to be well-understood. Here, drawing upon published social science research spanning 1910-2016, we illuminate deficiencies in the world’s farmers’ ecological literacy and in their valuation of insect-mediated ecosystem services. Though tribal people and indigenous folk possess sophisticated knowledge of insects that occur within farm settings, contemporary farmers know a mere 2.0 pestiferous herbivores and 0.8 pest-killing organisms (out of a respective 8 and 3 taxa). Ecosystem services such as biological control are annually worth hundreds of dollars ha-1 but remain unknown to nearly 70% of farmers globally. Also, agricultural systems with deficient ecological literacy tend to foster a greater dependency upon chemically-synthesized pesticides. If this ‘cognitive handicap’ can be remediated, farmers could become biodiversity stewards and champions in redressing multiple aspects of global environmental change.

scholarly journals Urban Green Spaces—An Underestimated Resource in Third-Tier Towns in Poland

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 453
Author(s):  
Marcin Feltynowski ◽  
Jakub Kronenberg
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Satellite Imagery ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Green Space ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Interconnected System ◽  
Urban Green ◽  
Urban Green Spaces

Urban green spaces are frequently presented as being important for urban quality of life and urban development in general, but more detailed interpretations and discussions are typically confined to large urban centers, the so-called first- and second-tier cities. Not enough attention has been paid to smaller urban units, the third-tier towns. The main goal of this article is to investigate the share and types of urban green spaces in five selected towns in Poland. We compare different sources of data based on satellite imagery and land-use maps with those used in public statistics, to check whether town authorities are managing all potential green spaces or only a selected part of them. We find that the predominantly used data, based on what is classified as “urban green space” for the purposes of public statistics, obscure the complexity of urban green spaces and focus on the narrowly understood formally managed public green spaces (which occupy 3.5–5.7% of town areas). Meanwhile, based on other sources, such as the national land-use map (BDOT10k), Urban Atlas, and satellite imagery (Landsat 8), what is considered to be green space turns out to cover 50–80% of the town area. The latter large numbers are associated with the predominance of arable land, grasslands, and forests, overlooked in any green space management practices based on data and definitions adopted for the purposes of public statistics. The situation found in our five case study towns resembles that identified in larger cities in Poland, and it exhibits the inadequacy of public statistics definitions and the related management practices, hindering the management of urban green spaces as an interconnected system of urban green infrastructures.

scholarly journals Crop Agriculture of Bangladesh: Challenges and Opportunities

1970 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad H Mondal
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Agricultural Research ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Fair Price ◽  
Crop Agriculture ◽  
The Government

Crop agriculture in Bangladesh is constrained every year by challenges, such as a) Loss of Arabie Land, b) Population Growth, c) Climate Changes, d) Inadequate Management Practices, e) Unfair Price of Produces, and f) Insufficient Investment in Research. In Bangladesh, about 80,000 ha of arable land are going out of production every year. The loss is alarming and needs to be addressed immediately. The land use policy of the government should be updated and implemented immediately to stop further loss of arable land. Another problem to agriculture is the increase in the growth of population. The twin problem of arable land loss and population growth needs to be addressed simultaneously to ensure sustainable crop production. Country's crop production is also affected frequently by flood, drought, and salinity. Varieties/technologies tolerant to these natural hazards need to be developed. Renewable energy, reduction in the use of fossil fuels, and afforestation are recommended to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. To sustain crop production, chemical fertilizers must be integrated with organic manure and costly non-urea fertilizers should continue to be subsidized. Incidence of pests and diseases has lately become severe due to climate change impacts. Therefore, more varieties resistant to the pests should be evolved. Small and marginal farmers of Bangladesh have limited access to institutional credit. They are not eligible for microcredit of NGOs either. Establishment of a new institution/foundation in line with PKSF is recommended to meet their needs. These farmers do not have farmers' associations or cooperatives to bargain for fair price of their produces. Government might encourage establishment of farmers' cooperatives to ensure fair price of their produces. To make such cooperatives successful, top-down approach by the influentials must be avoided. Investment in agricultural research should as well be raised to at least 2% of GDP to help generate technologies to cope with climate change hazards and disseminate such technologies at farmer's level. Keywords: Crop agriculture; challenges; opportunities. DOI: 10.3329/bjar.v35i2.5886Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 35(2) : 235-245, June 2010

Economic and environmental linear optimization model of crop production in selected regions of Slovakia

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Tatiana Svetlanská ◽  
Natália Turčeková ◽  
Rastislav Skalský
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Linear Optimization ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Integrated Modelling ◽  
Environmental Pressures ◽  
Agricultural Industry ◽  
Modelling Framework ◽  
Linear Optimization Model

AbstractFor the agricultural industry in Slovakia, the dominating sector is crop production. The major part of arable land is devoted to the cultivation of cereals (57%), feed crops (20%) and industry crops (19%).The aim of this paper is to model the distribution of crop management practices in selected regions of Slovakia and identify the net return for four selected crops in these regions. We use integrated modelling framework which incorporates bio-physical and economic data to identify opportunity costs of agricultural production choices. We delineate homogenous response units (HRU) and aggregate them on regional level as the model is constrained by land endowment in particular region. The results suggest that highest yields and thus high returns are achieved in case of management practice with high nitrogen input and irrigation. The high input management causes environmental pressures on soils, therefore its enforcement in regions is not desirable. The solution might appear in policy premiums for low input management practices.

scholarly journals The Impact of Late Holocene Flood Management on the Central Po Plain (Northern Italy)

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 3968 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filippo Brandolini ◽  
Mauro Cremaschi
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Land Reclamation ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Po Plain ◽  
The Impact

Fluvial environments have always played a crucial role in human history. The necessity of fertile land and fresh water for agriculture has led populations to settle in floodplains more frequently than in other environments. Floodplains are complex human–water systems in which the mutual interaction between anthropogenic activities and environment affected the landscape development. In this paper, we analyzed the evolution of the Central Po Plain (Italy) during the Medieval period through a multi-proxy record of geomorphological, archaeological and historical data. The collapse of the Western Roman Empire (5th century AD) coincided with a progressive waterlogging of large floodplain areas. The results obtained by this research shed new light on the consequences that Post-Roman land and water management activities had on landscape evolution. In particular, the exploitation of fluvial sediments through flood management practices had the effect of reclaiming the swamps, but also altered the natural geomorphological development of the area. Even so, the Medieval human activities were more in equilibrium with the natural system than with the later Renaissance large-scale land reclamation works that profoundly modified the landscape turning the wetland environment into the arable land visible today. The analysis of fluvial palaeoenvironments and their relation with past human activities can provide valuable indications for planning more sustainable urbanized alluvial landscapes in future.

scholarly journals Historical and future carbon emissions from croplands

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
S. J. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Conservation Tillage ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Crop Productivity ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Tillage Practices ◽  
Residue Removal

Abstract. We examine past and future carbon emissions from global croplands, considering land-use change, changes in crop productivity, tillage practices, and residue removal. We find that emissions over the historical period are sensitive to the assumed productivity of arable land that is not planted in a given year and the assumed fraction of soil carbon that is released during land conversion. The role of this "other" arable land, both at present and over the historical period, is not well understood and should be examined further. The carbon balance of croplands over 21st century depends on changes in management practices, particularly the adoption of conservation tillage and the potential removal of residue for use as energy feedstocks. We find that croplands will not become large carbon sinks in the future, however, unless most crop residue is left on fields. Given the relatively low carbon "penalty" incurred by removal, residue use for energy feedstocks may be the preferred option.

scholarly journals Modelling of nitrogen turnover and leaching in Saxony

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 139-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Gebel ◽  
S. Halbfaß ◽  
S. Bürger ◽  
H. Friese ◽  
S. Naumann
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Nitrogen Sources ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Nutrient Loads ◽  
Nitrogen And Phosphorus ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Relationship Of

Abstract. From 2005 to 2009 we modelled the input of nitrogen and phosphorus in waters in the area of the Federal State of Saxony (Germany). The model results are an important component in elucidating the present situation of nutrient loads in groundwater and surface water as well as its future development. The present contribution focuses on the modelling of diffuse nitrogen leaching on arable land. Processes of mobilization and immobilization of nitrogen are included in the modelling. They will be estimated as induced by the respective types of fruit, management practices and local conditions. Source areas can be derived using the relationship of nitrogen sources (mobilization, deposition) and sinks (immobilization, denitrification) on the regional scale.

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