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Estimated nitrous oxide emissions from nitrogen fertilizer use on multispecies grassland compared to monocultures
Date Issued
2018-06-21
Date Available
2019-05-15T11:09:04Z
Abstract
Grassland agriculture faces increasing demands in terms of sustainability; economic, social, and environmental. Soils are critical to sustainable agriculture, in terms of maintaining soil fertility and quality, protecting water quality and mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There is evidence to suggest that greater sward diversity may have benefits in this regard. We report results from SmartGrass; a three year field study at two sites in Ireland investigating grass sward diversity along a gradient from perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) monoculture to grass-legume mixes to more complex grass-legume-herb mixes of up to nine species. Results reported include estimates of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from fertiliser nitrogen (N), soil temperature and moisture conditions, plant-available soil N, changes in soil organic carbon (C) and plant-available phosphorus (P). Estimated direct N2O emissions from N fertiliser (g N2O-N t DM-1 ha-1 yr-1) decreased from 146 for the monoculture at 250 kg fertiliser N ha-1 yr-1 to 35 for the monoculture at 90 kg fertiliser N ha-1 yr-1, to approximately 16 for the grass-legume and grass-legume-herb mixes, also at 90 kg fertiliser N ha-1 yr-1. This was due to a combination of the grass-clover and mixed swards maintaining high DM yields at low fertiliser N input, and the fact that the fertiliser N for these treatments was applied entirely as urea. These results indicate significant potential for more diverse swards to mitigate GHG emissions from fertiliser N use in grassland agriculture.
Sponsorship
Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
University College Dublin
Type of Material
Conference Publication
Publisher
Teagasc
Volume
23
Start Page
646
End Page
648
Language
English
Status of Item
Not peer reviewed
Journal
The 27th European Grassland Federation General Meeting (EGF 2018), Cork, Ireland, 17-21 June 2018
Conference Details
The 27th European Grassland Federation General Meeting (EGF 2018), Cork, Ireland, 17-21 June 2018
ISBN
9781841706436
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
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Name
Murphy et al EGF 2018.pdf
Size
174.16 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
856c24862333175b6e8f5744bafc8011
Owning collection
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