Journal: Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems

Abbreviation

Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst

Publisher

Springer

Journal Volumes

ISSN

1385-1314
1573-0867

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Publications1 - 10 of 27
  • Nitrogen use efficiency of 15N-labelled sheep manure and mineral fertiliser applied to microplots in long-term organic and conventional cropping systems
    Item type: Journal Article
    Bosshard, C.; Sørensen, P.; Frossard, Emmanuel; et al. (2008)
    Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
  • Soil phosphorus pools with addition of fertiliser phosphorus in a long-term grazing experiment
    Item type: Journal Article
    McLaren, Timothy I.; Smernik, Ronald J.; McLaughlin, Michael J.; et al. (2020)
    Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
  • Nutrient balance and soil changes in plastic greenhouse vegetable production
    Item type: Journal Article
    Fan, Ya'nan; Zhang, Yanxia; Hess, Fabian; et al. (2020)
    Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
  • Ammonia emissions after trailing hose application of digestates and cattle slurry
    Item type: Journal Article
    Efosa, Norah; Häni, Christoph; Kupper, Thomas; et al. (2025)
    Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
    Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a promising technique for waste management, producing energy and contributing to nutrient recycling in agroecosystems. While digestates have higher plant-available nutrient contents, they may be prone to increased ammonia (NH3) losses due to elevated pH values and ammonium contents. This study investigates NH3 emissions from an agricultural digestate consisting of cattle slurry, solid manure and food processing waste (SLA) and a municipal organic waste digestate (LID) applied alongside untreated cattle slurry (SLU) as a reference to maize and cereals with a trailing hose. Values of dry matter, ammoniacal nitrogen (TAN) and pH were higher for SLA and LID than for SLU. Emissions were determined in five application events over three years with NH3 concentration measurements using an impinger system combined with backward Lagrangian Stochastic dispersion modeling. On average, 31%, 42%, and 43% of applied TAN volatilized as NH3 from SLU, SLA, and LID, respectively. Despite being higher from the treatments, these differences were not statistically significant. Therefore, it remains unclear whether digestates differ in NH3 emissions from untreated slurry. This topic needs further investigation due to the increasing use of AD.
  • Farm-gate nutrient balances of grassland-based milk production systems with full- or part-time grazing and fresh herbage indoor feeding at variable concentrate levels
    Item type: Journal Article
    Akert, Franziska S.; Dorn, Katharina; Frey, Hansjörg; et al. (2020)
    Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
    Farm-gate balances for nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) were used to determine the potential nutrient surplus and nutrient-use efficiency of three grassland-based milk production systems. These were either full-time grazing (FG) or part-time grazing with indoor feeding of fresh herbage with low (IF) or substantial concentrate allowance (IFplus). Data collected over 3 years were used (a) from 3 x 8 commercial dairy farms, and (b) from a controlled experiment. On FG, IF and IFplus farms, the N surplus (net input minus net output) was 78.6, 75.1 and 138.2 kg N ha(- 1) a(- 1), respectively, and N use efficiency (NUE; net output/net input) was 0.33, 0.44 and 0.34, respectively. Annual P inputs and outputs were relatively balanced, with a higher P use efficiency (PUE) found for FG (1.19) and IF (0.97) farms than for IFplus farms (0.57). The most important input sources, apart from biological N-2 fixation and atmospheric N deposition, were mineral fertilizer N, concentrate N/P in IFplus, and animal manure P. Results from the controlled experiment confirmed most of these findings. In general, the IF provided an efficient nutrient use at a relatively low surplus. Accounting for off-farm losses associated with feed inputs and manure export reduced the system NUE and PUE substantially. The large variability in nutrient-use efficiency among the commercial farms indicates a clear potential for improvement. The average N surplus could be reduced by approximately 40% in reference to the best performing farms in each system.
  • N₂O emission factors for cattle urine: effect of patch characteristics and environmental drivers
    Item type: Journal Article
    Barczyk, Lena; Kuntu-Blankson, Kate; Calanca, Pierluigi; et al. (2023)
    Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
    Urine patches from grazing cattle are hotspots of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. The default IPCC emission factor for urine patches (EFᵤᵣᵢₙₑ) is 0.77% for wet climates and 0.32% for dry climates. However, literature reports a considerable range of cattle urine EF values and urine characteristics used in experimental studies, revealing contrary results on the effects of urine patch characteristics and seasonal pattern. Therefore, we examined N2O emissions and corresponding EFᵤᵣᵢₙₑ values in relation to urine patch characteristics (urine N concentration, urine volume, patch area, urine composition) and environmental drivers (precipitation, water filled pore space, soil temperature). Ten artificial urine application experiments were performed from July 2020 to June 2022 on a pasture located in Eastern Switzerland. Urine N concentration, patch area, volume and urine N composition showed no significant effects on the EFᵤᵣᵢₙₑ value (p > 0.05). EFᵤᵣᵢₙₑ varied, however, strongly over time (0.17–2.05%). A large part of the variation could be predicted either by cumulative precipitation 20 days after urine application using a second order polynomial model (Adj. R² = 0.60) or average WFPS 30 days after urine application using a linear model (Adj. R² = 0.45). The derived precipitation model was used to simulate EFᵤᵣᵢₙₑ weekly over the last 20 years showing no significant differences between the seasons of a year. The resulting overall average EFᵤᵣᵢₙₑ was 0.67%. More field studies are needed across sites/regions differing in climate and soil properties to implement a country-specific EF₃ for Switzerland and to improve the quantification of N₂O emissions at the national scales.
  • Unconventional feeds for small ruminants in dry areas have a minor effect on manure nitrogen flow in the soil-plant system
    Item type: Journal Article
    Abbeddou, Souheila; Diekmann, J.; Rischkowsky, B.; et al. (2013)
    Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
  • Direct and plant community mediated effects of management intensity on annual nutrient leaching risk in temperate grasslands
    Item type: Journal Article
    Apostolakis, Antonios; Schöning, Ingo; Klaus, Valentin; et al. (2022)
    Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
    Grassland management intensity influences nutrient cycling both directly, by changing nutrient inputs and outputs from the ecosystem, and indirectly, by altering the nutrient content, and the diversity and functional composition of plant and microbial communities. However, the relative importance of these direct and indirect processes for the leaching of multiple nutrients is poorly studied. We measured the annual leaching of nitrate, ammonium, phosphate and sulphate at a depth of 10 cm in 150 temperate managed grasslands using a resin method. Using Structural Equation Modeling, we distinguished between various direct and indirect effects of management intensity (i.e. grazing and fertilization) on nutrient leaching. We found that management intensity was positively associated with nitrate, ammonium and phosphate leaching risk both directly (i.e. via increased nutrient inputs) and indirectly, by changing the stoichiometry of soils, plants and microbes. In contrast, sulphate leaching risk was negatively associated with management intensity, presumably due to increased outputs with mowing and grazing. In addition, management intensification shifted plant communities towards an exploitative functional composition (characterized by high tissue turnover rates) and, thus, further promoted the leaching risk of inorganic nitrogen. Plant species richness was associated with lower inorganic nitrogen leaching risk, but most of its effects were mediated by stoichiometry and plant community functional traits. Maintaining and restoring diverse plant communities may therefore mitigate the increased leaching risk that management intensity imposes upon grasslands.
  • Large nitrous oxide emissions from arable soils after crop harvests prior to sowing
    Item type: Journal Article
    Maier, Regine; Hörtnagl, Lukas; Buchmann, Nina (2025)
    Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
    Global agriculture is the largest anthropogenic source for nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. During crop rotations, periods with arable soils without crops, thereafter called “bare soils” are often impossible to avoid after the crop is harvested, prior to sowing of the next crop. However, such periods are underrepresented in studies focussing on N2O emissions. Here, we present continuous, high-temporal-resolution N2O fluxes during bare soil periods after four major crops, using the eddy-covariance technique at two sites in Switzerland. Overall, periods with bare soil were net sources for N2O as well as for carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). Daily average sums of N2O emissions varied between 10 ± 2 and 38 ± 5 g N2O-N ha−1 d−1 after the respective rapeseed, winter wheat, pea, and maize harvests. While CO2 emissions contributed 86–96% to the total GHG budgets, N2O fluxes accounted for 2% after pea, but for 10–12% after rapeseed, winter wheat, and maize. In contrast, CH4 fluxes were negligible (< 2%). N2O fluxes during bare soil periods increased for all cropland sites with increasing water-filled pore space, particularly at high soil temperatures. Thus, our study emphasizes the significance of avoiding bare soil periods to mitigate N2O emissions from croplands.
  • Influence of cover crop residue traits on phosphorus availabiltity and subsequent uptake by plants
    Item type: Journal Article
    Honvault, Nicolas; Faucon, Michel-Pierre; McLaren, Timothy Ian; et al. (2024)
    Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems
    Cover crops are typically thought to increase the P nutrition of crops. However, there are mixed reports on this with some studies reporting a negative effect. An improved understanding of cover crop residues and their P release dynamics could offer new insight with the benefit of improved management for optimal P availability in cropping systems. Here, we examined the influence of cover crop residue traits for six different crop types on soil P availability and subsequent plant (ryegrass) P uptake over a four-month period in a soil with moderate P availability. Among the residue traits examined (residue P concentration, N concentration, C:P ratio, C:N ratio, N:P ratio and specific leaf area), only residue P concentration and C:P ratio were related to soil P availability and subsequent crop P uptake. Important short-term effects of residue C:P ratio on P availability were highlighted. Strong to moderate negative correlations between residue C:P ratio and subsequent crop P uptake (R2 between 0.4 and 0.8) were observed. Decreases in subsequent crop uptake of up to 43% compared to unfertilized pots occurred for residues with high C:P ratios for the first cut, strongly suggesting microbial P immobilization. Effects faded with time, with most cover crop residue additions having little to no influence on ryegrass P uptake over a four month period. Residues with the highest C:P ratio nonetheless resulted in a 22% decrease in cumulative P uptake compared to unfertilized pots. Our study highlighted that cover crop C:P ratio should be managed in order to ensure minimized adverse effects of microbial P immobilization. The observed low effects of cover crop residues on P uptake in a subsequent crop suggest that improving P availability in context with moderate P limitations via cover cropping may require relying on other services provided by cover crops such as mobilization of sparingly available P pools.
Publications1 - 10 of 27