scholarly journals Orchard Floor and Nitrogen Management Influences Soil and Water Quality and Tart Cherry Yields

2003 ◽  
Vol 128 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose E. Sanchez ◽  
Charles E. Edson ◽  
George W. Bird ◽  
Mark E. Whalon ◽  
Thomas C. Willson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Ground Cover ◽  
N Fertilizer ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Tart Cherry ◽  
Organic C ◽  
Full Rate ◽  
C And N ◽  
C And N Pools ◽  
N Management

Designing and implementing more productive, nutrient-efficient, and environmentally sound orchard management systems requires a better understanding of plant and soil responses to more biologically driven management practices. This study explored the effect of orchard floor and N management on soil organic C and N, populations of nematodes, NO3 leaching, and yields in tart cherry (Prunus cerasus L. `Montmorency') production. A baseline conventional orchard system consisting of an herbicide-treated tree row and a full rate of N fertilizer was compared to two modified-conventional and ten alternative orchard floor and N management systems. Living ground cover and the use of mulch with or without composted manure increased total C and the active C and N pools in the soil. For instance, supplemental mulch or mulch applied using a side-delivery mower increased soil C by >20% above the conventional baseline. The size of the active C pool increased 45% and 60% with the use of the species mix 2 ground cover and compost, respectively. Increases in the active N pool ranged from a low of 25% in the soils using mulch or a ground cover mix to a high of 60% when compost was used. As a result, the ability of these soils to provide N to growing plants was enhanced. Total soil N increased in the treatment using natural weeds as ground cover and the full rate of N fertilizer. It is likely that weeds were able to convert significant amounts of fertilizer N into organic forms. Increasing the active C and N pools stimulates microbial activity, and may favor populations of nonplant parasitic nematodes over plant parasitic species. Using a trunk-to-trunk cover crop mix under the cherry trees reduced NO3 leaching by >90% compared to a conventional, herbicide treated soil, even when N fertilizer was used at full rate. Nitrate leaching also dramatically diminished when N fertilizer was fertigated at a reduced rate or when compost was used as N source. Alternative orchard floor and N management did not reduce yields when compared to the baseline conventional treatment.

The effects of cultivation method, fertilizer input and previous sward type on organic C and N storage and gaseous losses under spring and winter barley following long-term leys

2002 ◽  
Vol 139 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. A. VINTEN ◽  
B. C. BALL ◽  
M. F. O'SULLIVAN ◽  
J. K. HENSHALL
Keyword(s):  
Spring Barley ◽  
Balance Sheet ◽  
N Fertilizer ◽  
Net N Mineralization ◽  
No Tillage ◽  
Confidence Limits ◽  
Organic C ◽  
Soil C ◽  
C And N

The effects of ploughing or no-tillage of long-term grass and grass-clover swards on changes in organic C and N pools and on CO2 and denitrified gas emissions were investigated in a 3-year field experiment in 1996–99 near Penicuik, Scotland. The decrease in soil C content between 1996 and 1999 was 15·3 t/ha (95% confidence limits were 1·7–28·9 t/ha). Field estimates of CO2 losses from deep-ploughed, normal-ploughed and no-tillage plots were 3·1, 4·5 and 4·6 t/ha over the sampling periods (a total of 257 days) in 1996–98. The highest N2O fluxes were from the fertilized spring barley under no-tillage. Thus no-tillage did not reduce C emissions, caused higher N2O emissions, and required larger inputs of N fertilizer than ploughing. By contrast, deep ploughing led to smaller C and N2O emissions but had no effect on yields, suggesting that deep ploughing might be an appropriate means of conserving C and N when leys are ploughed in. Subsoil denitrification losses were estimated to be 10–16 kg N/ha per year by measurement of 15N emissions from incubated intact cores. A balance sheet of N inputs and outputs showed that net N mineralization over 3 years was lower from plots receiving N fertilizer than from plots receiving no fertilizer.

Response of labile organic C and N pools to plastic film removal from semiarid farmland soil

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. S. Luo ◽  
L. Zhu ◽  
J. L. Liu ◽  
L. D. Bu ◽  
S. C. Yue ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plastic Film ◽  
Organic C ◽  
Farmland Soil ◽  
C And N ◽  
C And N Pools

Long-term effects of tillage, stubble, and nitrogen management on properties of a red-brown earth

1995 ◽  
Vol 35 (7) ◽  
pp. 923 ◽  
Author(s):  
NA Fettell ◽  
HS Gill
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Soil Organic C ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Total N ◽  
Organic C ◽  
Stubble Retention ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Direct Drilling ◽  
N Management

Differences in soil organic carbon (C), total nitrogen (N), and pH resulting from 14 and 15 years of different tillage, stubble, and fertiliser N management practices were measured for a red-brown earth at Condobolin in western New South Wales. The 5 main treatments comprised stubble burning or retention in factorial combination with cultivation and direct drilling, and stubble incorporation combined with cultivation. Two rates of N fertiliser (0 and 40 or 50 kg/ha) were applied annually, and wheat was grown each year. There were no significant differences between tillage and stubble treatments for soil organic C, total N, or pH. Fertiliser N application caused small but significant increases in organic C and total N but decreased the pH of the surface 2.5 cm of soil by 0.4-0.5 units compared with the nil fertiliser rate. The study indicates that direct drilling and stubble retention with continuous wheat have had little long-term effect on soil organic C and total N in this low rainfall environment.

scholarly journals Optimizing nitrogen fertilizer use for more grain and less pollution

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyu Ren ◽  
Minggang Xu ◽  
Rong Li ◽  
Lei Zheng ◽  
Shaogui Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Application Rate ◽  
N Fertilizer ◽  
N Application ◽  
Fertilizer Use ◽  
Application Rates ◽  
Operational Practices ◽  
N Management ◽  
N Fertilizer Use

Abstract Optimal nitrogen (N) management is critical for efficient crop production and agricultural pollution control. However, it is difficult to implement advanced management practices on smallholder farms due to a lack of knowledge and technology. Here, using 35,502 on-farm fertilization experiments, we demonstrated that smallholders in China could produce more grain with less N fertilizer use through optimizing N application rate. The yields of wheat, maize and rice were shown to increase between 10% and 19% while N application rates were reduced by 15–19%. These changes resulted in an increase in N use efficiency (NUE) by 32–46% and a reduction in N surplus by 40% without actually changing farmers’ operational practices. By reducing N application rates in line with official recommendations would not only save fertilizer cost while increasing crop yield, but at the same time reduce environmental N pollution in China. However, making progress towards further optimizing N fertilizer use to produce more grain with less pollution would require managements to improve farmers’ practices which was estimated to cost about 11.8 billion US dollars to implement.

scholarly journals Quantitative and Qualitative Responses of Soil Water-Extractable Organic Matter to Carbon and Nitrogen Management Practices in Loess Soil

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2025
Author(s):  
Qin Chen ◽  
Zheng-Kui Ge ◽  
Rong Chai ◽  
Yuan Li ◽  
Yu-Long Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Organic Amendments ◽  
Loess Soil ◽  
N Fertilization ◽  
C And N ◽  
N Management ◽  
Extractable Organic Matter ◽  
Water Extractable

Soil-dissolved organic matter (DOM) drives the carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles in agroecosystems. Despite many studies on DOM dynamics, hardly any attention has been directed toward DOM quality, particularly DOM composition. The aim of this study was to elucidate how C and N management practices alter soil water-extractable organic matter (WEOM) in a loess soil agroecosystem. Field experiments were conducted with a winter wheat monoculture. Three N fertilization rates (0, 120, and 240 kg ha−1 year−1) were applied for 17 years (2002–2019), combined with five C practices (zero, low, and high rates of sheep manure or wheat straw) for three years (2016–2019). The results reveal that soil organic carbon (SOC) and water-extractable organic carbon (WEOC) concentrations in the topsoil (0–20 cm) were increased by organic amendments considerably but were not affected by N fertilization. The fluorescence excitation–emission matrix spectra (EEM) of WEOM were resolved to two humic-like components (C1 and C2) and two soluble microbial byproduct-like components (C3 and C4). The proportions of C1 and C2 were increased, while the proportion of C3 was decreased by both C and N management practices. In conclusion, organic amendments increased both WEOM quality and its proportion of humic-like components, whereas N fertilization increased the proportion of humic-like components without variations of WEOM quality in the topsoil of loess soil.

scholarly journals ORGANIC C DYNAMICS IN GRASSLAND SOILS. 2. MODEL VALIDATION AND SIMULATION OF THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF CULTIVATION AND RAINFALL EROSION

1981 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. P. VORONEY ◽  
J. A. VAN VEEN ◽  
E. A. PAUL
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Microbial Biomass ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
State Level ◽  
Microbial Biomass C ◽  
Organic C ◽  
Native Prairie ◽  
Cropping Sequence ◽  
C And N ◽  
Rainfall Erosion

The amounts of organic matter in native prairie and in an adjacent cultivated field were compared with the output from a simulation model describing organic matter dynamics. The effects of past and possible future soil management practices, and the loss of organic C through rainfall erosion were incorporated into the simulation study. Seventy years of cultivation increased the bulk density of the A horizon by an average of 16% along the catena of a Black Chernozemic soil. Organic C had decreased by 36% in the soil profile at the mid-slope position. Losses of organic N were 5–10% less. Depletion of organic C and N from the Ah horizon accounted for > 90% of the total loss from the soil profile. Therefore, extrapolation of data from surface soil, based solely on changes in the concentration of organic C and N, could result in an overestimation of organic matter losses from soils. Microbial biomass in the Ap horizon of the crop-summer-fallow site was 30% less than in the Ah horizon of the native prairie. The model predicted an immediate rise in microbial biomass C upon cultivation of the native prairie due to a large initial input of grassland litter and roots. Subsequently, the microbial biomass C decreased and approached a steady-state level which was 25% less than in the native prairie. The model indicates that large quantities of N released during the initial years of cultivation would not have been totally utilized by the cultivated crops, therefore resulting in major losses to the environment. However, now the organic matter is reaching a steady-state level and only small net release of N can be expected; external N sources are required for optimum crop production. Management practices such as straw removal and cropping sequence have short-term effects on the rate of depletion of soil organic C. Similar equilibrium levels of soil organic matter were predicted after 100 yr of cultivation in simulation studies that did not consider erosion losses. The inclusion of rainfall erosion losses indicated that major organic C and other nutrient losses will occur in management practices that include significant portions of fallow in the cropping sequence.

Dissolved soil organic carbon and nitrogen were affected by conversion of native forests to plantations in subtropical China

2010 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
J -S Wu ◽  
P -K Jiang ◽  
S X Chang ◽  
Q -F Xu ◽  
Y. Lin
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Water Soluble ◽  
Organic N ◽  
Subtropical China ◽  
Organic C ◽  
Native Forests ◽  
C And N ◽  
Intensively Managed ◽  
The Impact

To better understand the impact of converting native forests to intensively managed plantations on soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics in subtropical China, we examined the seasonal patterns of water-soluble organic C (WSOC) and N (WSON) concentrations in soils in Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima Blume) (CF) and bamboo (Phyllostachys praecox C.D. Chu & C.S. Chou) plantation forests (BF) and adjacent native evergreen broadleaf forests (NF) in Ling-long Mountain, Zhejiang Province, China. The plantations were disturbed through surface soil removal and were fertilized and/or mulched, from which economic products (such as nuts and bamboo shoots) were annually harvested. We found that WSOC and WSON had large seasonal variations and were lower in the warmer than in the colder season. Average WSOC concentrations followed the order of BF (58.6) > NF (35.1) > CF (18.1 mg C kg-1), a pattern mainly caused by mulching in BF in winter and the removal of surface soil in CF. Soil total C and N followed the order of BF > NF > CF. The extensive inorganic and organic fertilizer application in BF caused WSON concentrations to be 21 and 14 times higher than those in NF and CF, respectively. Conversion of native forests to plantations lowered soil WSOC:WSON and soil C:N ratios. The seasonal dynamics of WSOC:SOC (soil organic C) and WSON/TN ratios followed the same patterns of WSOC and WSON, respectively. The impacts of forest types on WSOC/SOC ratio, which is a measure of the quality of organic matter, were dependent on seasonal changes of management practices and/or tree growth. Nevertheless mean annual WSON/TN ratios of BF and CF were 2 and 12 times that of NF, indicating that a greater proportion of the total soil N pool became solubilized in the intensively managed plantations. We conclude that land-use conversion and associated management practices had a profound impact on WSOC, WSON, and total C and N concentrations in the studied forest soils in subtropical China.Key words: Forest management, water-soluble organic C, water-soluble organic N, WSOC/WSON ratio

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