Depleting soil nutrients through frequency and timing of hay cutting on floodplain meadows for habitat restoration and nutrient neutrality

Bowskill, Vicky; Bhagwat, Shonil A.; Gowing, David

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110140

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…European floodplain meadows are typically highly managed ecosystems, with mowing taking place during summer, and sometimes again during autumn (Bowskill et al., 2023 ). In our experiment, we simulated this management by cutting back vegetation once during summer, and again during autumn.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Floodplain meadows are often intensively managed by cutting/mowing, traditionally to provide a midsummer hay harvest but also to promote species richness (Gerard et al., 2008 ; Rothero et al., 2020 ). A second cut during autumn is sometimes done, which has the additional benefit of reducing flood‐derived nutrient loads (Bowskill et al., 2023 ). We simulated these management interventions by cutting all vegetation down to 4 cm on two occasions; first at the end of June 2016, and again in mid‐November 2016.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A second cut during autumn is sometimes done, which has the additional benefit of reducing flood-derived nutrient loads (Bowskill et al, 2023). We simulated these management interventions by cutting all vegetation down to 4 cm on two occasions; first at the end of June 2016, and again in mid-November 2016.…”

Section: Alopecurus Pratensis Trifolium Pratense Sanguisorba Officinalismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Water table depth and plant species determine the direction and magnitude of methane fluxes in floodplain meadow soils

Peacock,

Lawson,

Gowing

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Methane (CH4) is a powerful greenhouse gas with ongoing efforts aiming to quantify and map emissions from natural and managed ecosystems. Wetlands play a significant role in the global CH4 budget, but uncertainties in their total emissions remain large, due to a combined lack of CH4 data and fuzzy boundaries between mapped ecosystem categories. European floodplain meadows are anthropogenic ecosystems that originated due to traditional management for hay cropping. These ecosystems are seasonally inundated by river water, and straddle the boundary between grassland and wetland ecosystems; however, an understanding of their CH4 function is lacking. Here, we established a replicated outdoor floodplain‐meadow mesocosm experiment to test how water table depth (45, 30, 15 cm below the soil surface) and plant composition affect CH4 fluxes over an annual cycle. Water table was a major controller on CH4, with significantly higher fluxes (overall mean 9.3 mg m−2 d−1) from the high (15 cm) water table treatment. Fluxes from high water table mesocosms with bare soil were low (mean 0.4 mg m−2 d−1), demonstrating that vegetation drove high emissions. Larger emissions came from high water table mesocosms with aerenchymatous plant species (e.g. Alopecurus pratensis, mean 12.8 mg m−2 d−1), suggesting a role for plant‐mediated transport. However, at low (45 cm) water tables A. pratensis mesocosms were net CH4 sinks, suggesting that there is plasticity in CH4 exchange if aerenchyma are present. Plant cutting to simulate a hay harvest had no effect on CH4, further supporting a role for plant‐mediated transport. Upscaling our CH4 fluxes to a UK floodplain meadow using hydrological modelling showed that the meadow was a net CH4 source because oxic periods of uptake were outweighed by flooding‐induced anoxic emissions. Our results show that floodplain meadows can be either small sources or sinks of CH4 over an annual cycle. Their CH4 exchange appears to respond to soil temperature, moisture status and community composition, all of which are likely to be modified by climate change, leading to uncertainty around the future net contribution of floodplain meadows to the CH4 cycle.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Alopecurus Pratensis Trifolium Pratense Sanguisorba Officinalismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Water table depth and plant species determine the direction and magnitude of methane fluxes in floodplain meadow soils

Peacock,

Lawson,

Gowing

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Nutrient neutrality involves mitigating the nutrient load from a new development either onsite or elsewhere within the same catchment as the protected habitat. Potential nu-Environments 2023, 10, 168 2 of 18 trient management options include agricultural runoff management solutions (for example, retiring agricultural land to reduce fertiliser and manure applications and the use of postharvest cover crops to reduce residual nutrient losses); nature-based solutions (for example, reforesting marginal, often unprofitable cropland, creating new wetlands to strip nutrients from water, and creating nutrient buffer zones along rivers and other watercourses); wastewater management solutions (for example, improving existing wastewater treatment infrastructure and upgrading existing private sewage systems); and demand management solutions (for example, retrofitting water-saving measures in existing properties) [5,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Nutrient neutrality, an example of water quality trading, is an economical and efficient mechanism for controlling excess nutrient loads in catchments through the generation of 'credits' from nutrient management solutions that are sold to buyers facing restrictions imposed by environmental quality standards [18,19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Export Coefficient Modelling of Nutrient Neutrality to Protect Aquatic Habitats in the River Wensum Catchment, UK

Hiscock,

Cooper,

Lovett

et al. 2023

Environments

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The pressure of nutrient pollution derived from wastewater treatment works and agricultural runoff is a reason for the decline in the ecological health of aquatic habitats. Projected residential development in catchments creates further nutrient loading that can be offset by nutrient management solutions that maintain ‘nutrient neutrality’ either onsite or elsewhere within the same catchment. This study developed an export coefficient model in conjunction with detailed farm business data to explore a nature-based solution to nutrient neutrality involving seven scenarios of crop conversion to mixed woodland or grazing grass in an area of intensive arable cultivation in the groundwater-fed Blackwater sub-catchment of the River Wensum, UK. When compared with the monitored riverine export of nutrients, the calculated nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) inputs under current land use showed that subsurface denitrification is removing 48–78% of the leached N and that P is accumulating in the field soils. The addition of 235 residential homes planned for 2018–2038 in the Blackwater will generate an additional nutrient load of 190 kg N a−1 and 4.9 kg P a−1. In six of the seven scenarios, the modelled fractions of crop conversion (0.02–0.21) resulted in the required reduction in P loading and more than sufficient reduction in N loading (196–1874 kg a−1 for mixed woodland and 287–2103 kg a−1 for grazing grass), with the additional reduction in N load above the requirement for nutrient neutrality potentially contributing to further improvement in water quality. The cost of land conversion is modelled in terms of crop gross margins and nutrient credits generated in the form of 0.1 kg units of N or P. For the range of scenarios considered, the annual cost per credit ranged from GBP 0.78–11.50 for N for mixed woodland (GBP 0.74–7.85 for N for grazing grass) and from GBP 160–782 for P for both scenarios. It is concluded that crop conversion is a viable option to achieve nutrient neutrality in arable catchments in eastern England when considered together with other nutrient management solutions.

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Depleting soil nutrients through frequency and timing of hay cutting on floodplain meadows for habitat restoration and nutrient neutrality

Cited by 2 publications

References 28 publications

Water table depth and plant species determine the direction and magnitude of methane fluxes in floodplain meadow soils

Water table depth and plant species determine the direction and magnitude of methane fluxes in floodplain meadow soils

Export Coefficient Modelling of Nutrient Neutrality to Protect Aquatic Habitats in the River Wensum Catchment, UK

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