Denitrification and Nitrous Oxide Emissions in Annual Croplands, Perennial Grass Buffers, and Restored Perennial Grasslands

Iqbal, Javed; Parkin, Timothy B.; Helmers, Matthew J.; Zhou, Xiaobo; Castellano, Michael J.

doi:10.2136/sssaj2014.05.0221

Cited by 41 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Several responses reported here differed slightly in terms of numeric outcome because here we included more complete datasets where available and used a consistent analytical framework across measures, incorporating a unique multidimensional summary achieved by calculating a scalar for each response. Companion studies have additionally established that prairie strips have the potential to improve soil quality (25), reduce nitrous oxide emissions losses from croplands through denitrification (29), and reduce exposure of beneficial insects to neonicotinoid insecticides (34). Collectively, our data indicate that, relative to other conservation options available to farmers and farmland owners, prairie strips may be a low-cost way (30) to address many major environmental problems associated with agriculture in the US Corn Belt, including soil erosion, emissions of nutrients and concomitant declines in water quality, and loss and degradation of habitat for native biota.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In previous disciplinary papers we established that prairie strips in row cropland provided habitat for native biodiversity (22)(23)(24), improved soil quality (25), fostered desirable patterns of biogeochemical functioning and hydrological regulation (26)(27)(28)(29), and offered a low-cost agricultural conservation option for farmers and farmland owners relative to alternative best-management practices (30). Here, we sought to use a holistic, integrative approach to assess the effects of prairie strips relative to the proportion of the catchments they occupied.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Prairie strips improve biodiversity and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services from corn–soybean croplands

Schulte

Niemi

Helmers

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Loss of biodiversity and degradation of ecosystem services from agricultural lands remain important challenges in the United States despite decades of spending on natural resource management. To date, conservation investment has emphasized engineering practices or vegetative strategies centered on monocultural plantings of nonnative plants, largely excluding native species from cropland. In a catchment-scale experiment, we quantified the multiple effects of integrating strips of native prairie species amid corn and soybean crops, with prairie strips arranged to arrest run-off on slopes. Replacing 10% of cropland with prairie strips increased biodiversity and ecosystem services with minimal impacts on crop production. Compared with catchments containing only crops, integrating prairie strips into cropland led to greater catchment-level insect taxa richness (2.6-fold), pollinator abundance (3.5-fold), native bird species richness (2.1-fold), and abundance of bird species of greatest conservation need (2.1-fold). Use of prairie strips also reduced total water runoff from catchments by 37%, resulting in retention of 20 times more soil and 4.3 times more phosphorus. Corn and soybean yields for catchments with prairie strips decreased only by the amount of the area taken out of crop production. Social survey results indicated demand among both farming and nonfarming populations for the environmental outcomes produced by prairie strips. If federal and state policies were aligned to promote prairie strips, the practice would be applicable to 3.9 million ha of cropland in Iowa alone.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Prairie strips improve biodiversity and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services from corn–soybean croplands

Schulte

Niemi

Helmers

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

245

192

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“…It has been shown that miscanthus and switchgrass remove more carbon (C) from the atmosphere (Davis et al ., ; Zeri et al ., , ; Anderson‐Teixeira et al ., ), require less nutrient application (Christian et al ., ; Heaton et al ., , ) and leach less DIN (Beale & Long, ; McIsaac et al ., ; Smith et al ., ) relative to annual crops and may present opportunities for additional ecosystem services (Costello et al ., ; McIsaac et al ., ; Ng et al ., ; Davis et al ., ). These previous findings and ecosystem model simulations show that incorporating perennials, including miscanthus or switchgrass, on land that is currently under maize production for ethanol could reduce significantly DIN leaching and greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions on a land surface basis (Davis et al ., ; Iqbal et al ., ). However, experiments also show that potential cellulosic feedstocks use more water (Hickman et al ., ; McIsaac et al ., ; VanLoocke et al ., , ) than current vegetation that may result in reductions in streamflow (McIsaac et al ., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the potential to decrease the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone with MidwestUSperennial cellulosic feedstock production

et al. 2016

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The goal of this research was to determine the changes in streamflow, dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) leaching and export to the Gulf of Mexico associated with a range of large-scale dedicated perennial cellulosic bioenergy production scenarios within in the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB). To achieve this goal, we used Agro-IBIS, a vegetation model capable of simulating the biogeochemistry of row crops, miscanthus and switchgrass, coupled with THMB, a hydrology model capable of simulating streamflow and DIN export. Simulations were conducted at varying fertilizer application rates (0-200 kg N ha À1 ) and fractional replacement (5-25%) of current row crops with miscanthus or switchgrass across the MARB. The analysis also includes two scenarios where miscanthus and switchgrass (MRX and MRS, respectively) each replace the ca. 40% of maize production currently devoted to ethanol. Across the scenarios, there were minor reductions in runoff and streamflow throughout the MARB, with the largest differences (ca. 6%) occurring for miscanthus at the highest fractional replacement scenarios in drier portions of the region. However, differences in total MARB discharge at the basin outlet were less than 1.5% even in the MRX scenario. Reductions in DIN export were much larger on a percentage basis than reductions in runoff, with the highest replacement scenarios decreasing long-term mean DIN export by ca. 15% and 20% for switchgrass and miscanthus, respectively. Fertilization scenarios show that significant reductions in DIN leaching are possible even with application rates of 100 and 150 kg N ha À1for switchgrass and miscanthus, respectively. These results indicate that, given targeted management strategies, there is potential for miscanthus and switchgrass to provide key ecosystem services by reducing the export of DIN, while avoiding hydrologic impacts of reduced streamflow.

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“…The N 2 O background flux in our study was also lower than those of unfertilized (0.4-1.1 mg N d −1 m −2 ) or fertilized (0.6-3.2 mg N d −1 m −2 ) corn-soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] rotation in Iowa (Iqbal et al, 2015).…”

Section: Nitrous Oxidementioning

confidence: 99%

Dung Beetles Increase Greenhouse Gas Fluxes from Dung Pats in a North Temperate Grassland

et al. 2019

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Soil fauna plays a critical role in various ecosystem processes, but empirical data measuring its impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from rangelands are limited. We quantified the effects of dung beetles on in situ CO2, CH4, and N2O emissions from simulated cattle dung deposits. Soil in meadows of the semiarid Nebraska Sandhills was treated with three treatments (dung pats with exposure and without exposure to dung beetles, and a no dung control). A closed‐chamber method was used to measure GHG fluxes at 0, 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 14, 21, 28, and 56 d after dung placement in the early season (June–August) and late season (July–September) in 2014 and 2015. The greatest dung beetle abundance was 6 ± 2 beetles per quarter pat on Day 7; the abundance decreased to <2 ± 0.6 on Day 14 and 28 and zero on Day 56. Dung beetles increased fluxes of CO2 by 0.2 g C d−1 m−2, N2O by 0.4 mg N d−1 m−2 (only in late season 2015), and CH4 by 0.2 mg C d−1 m−2. These increases were due to beetle‐made macropores that facilitated gas transport in wet dung (initial moisture = 4.6 g g−1 on a dry‐weight basis) within 7 d after dung placement. Seasonal environmental differences resulted in greater CO2, N2O, and CH4 fluxes in the early season than in the late season. This study concluded that dung beetles increased GHG fluxes from early‐ and late‐season dung deposits on meadows of the semiarid Nebraska Sandhills. Core Ideas Dung beetle activities on dung pat enhanced CO2–C emission. The effect of dung beetle activities on N2O emission from dung pat was inconsistent. Soil moisture and temperature had a significant effect on GHG emission.

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Denitrification and Nitrous Oxide Emissions in Annual Croplands, Perennial Grass Buffers, and Restored Perennial Grasslands

Cited by 41 publications

References 47 publications

Prairie strips improve biodiversity and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services from corn–soybean croplands

Prairie strips improve biodiversity and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services from corn–soybean croplands

Assessing the potential to decrease the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone with MidwestUSperennial cellulosic feedstock production

Dung Beetles Increase Greenhouse Gas Fluxes from Dung Pats in a North Temperate Grassland

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