Element balances as a tool for sustainable nutrient management: a critical appraisal of their merits and limitations within an agronomic and environmental context

Öborn, Ingrid; Edwards, Anthony C.; Witter, Ernst; Oenema, O.; Ivarsson, K; Withers, P. J. A.; Nilsson, Staffan; Stinzing, A Richert

doi:10.1016/s1161-0301(03)00080-7

Cited by 202 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Nitrogen balance analysis is useful not only for predicting N accumulation in an ecosystem but also for improving nitrogen use efficiency and reducing the environmental risk of N loss. It has been widely adopted in the transition toward more sustainable agriculture practices (Öborn et al, 2003;Oenema et al, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in nitrogen budget and potential risk to the environment over 20years (1990–2010) in the agroecosystems of the Haihe Basin, China

Zheng

Ying-xia

et al. 2015

Journal of Environmental Sciences

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The nitrogen balance can serve as an indicator of the risk to the environment of nitrogen loss from agricultural land. To investigate the temporal and spatial changes in agricultural nitrogen application and its potential threat to the environment of the Haihe Basin in China, we used a database of county-level agricultural statistics to calculate agricultural nitrogen input, output, surplus intensity, and use efficiency. Chemical fertilizer nitrogen input increased by 51.7% from partly due to fertilizer composition and type improvement. This level indicates that more than half of nitrogen inputs are lost in agroecosystems. Our results suggest that although the improvement in fertilizer composition and types has partially offset the decrease in nitrogen use efficiency, the environmental risk has still increased gradually over the past 20 years, along with the increase in crop yields and nitrogen application. It is important to achieve a better nitrogen balance through more effective management to significantly reduce the environmental risk, decrease nitrogen surplus intensity, and increase nitrogen use efficiency without sacrificing crop yields.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in nitrogen budget and potential risk to the environment over 20years (1990–2010) in the agroecosystems of the Haihe Basin, China

Zheng

Ying-xia

et al. 2015

Journal of Environmental Sciences

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“…To improve the relationship between surpluses and losses, some researchers propose that the budgets should be averaged over a significant number of years to eliminate the effect of temporal variation in climate and farming practices [126,127]. Although the variety of existent accounting systems and the extent of their adoption is encouraging, a uniform and coherent concept for budget calculations at the field and farm scale is required [126,128]. Nonetheless, the more simple budgeting approaches like the farm gate budget fail to consider the timing and transport aspects of mitigation (Table 4) and assume a direct causal relationship between potential and actual nutrient loss [73].…”

Section: Farm Surveys and Nutrient Budgetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nitrogen Related Diffuse Pollution from Horticulture Production—Mitigation Practices and Assessment Strategies

Cameira

Mota

2017

Horticulturae

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Abstract:Agriculture is considered one of the main nitrogen (N) pollution sources through the diffuse emissions of ammonia (NH 3 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) to the atmosphere and nitrate (NO 3 − ) to water bodies. The risk is particularly high in horticultural production systems (HPS), where the use of water and fertilizers is intensive and concentrated in space and time, and more specifically, in the case of vegetable crops that have high growth rates, demanding an abundant supply of water and nitrogen forms. Therefore, to comply with the EU environmental policies aimed at reducing diffuse pollution in agriculture, there is the need for mitigation practices or strategies acting at different levels such as the source, the timing and the transport of N. HPS are often well suited for improvement practices, but efficient and specific tools capable of describing and quantifying N losses for these particular production systems are required. The most common mitigation strategies found in the literature relate to crop, irrigation and fertilization management. Nevertheless, only the success of a mitigation strategy under specific conditions will allow its implementation to be increasingly targeted and more cost effective. Assessment methods are therefore required to evaluate and to quantify the impact of mitigation strategies in HPS and to select the most promising ones.

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“…In case of phosphorus, the balance does not explain the role of this nutrient in agricultural production, but is used for quantative description of appearance. Fundamental differences between N and P dynamics in soil and their mobility through the landscape, therefore govern the time scales over which surpluses of N and P become important [21]. The nitrogen and phosphorus balances were positive for Poland and Misssissippi.…”

Section: Phosphorus Input and Outputmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The information provided by N balances is used to analyse the interactions between agriculture and environment and to evaluate the impacts of agricultural policy on the environment [22]. A nutrient surplus is the best indicator of total nutrient losses to environment if integrated over a relatively a long period [21]. The correlation analysis of nitrogen balance in US and Poland shows the importance of pig production in Poland and poultry production and atmospheric deposition in MS ( Table 3).…”

Section: Phosphorus Input and Outputmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of phosphorus and nitrogen balances as an indicator for the impact of agriculture on environment: A comparison of a case study from Poland and Mississippi US

Gaj¹,

Bellaloui²

2012

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Element balances as a tool for sustainable nutrient management: a critical appraisal of their merits and limitations within an agronomic and environmental context

Cited by 202 publications

References 40 publications

Changes in nitrogen budget and potential risk to the environment over 20years (1990–2010) in the agroecosystems of the Haihe Basin, China

Changes in nitrogen budget and potential risk to the environment over 20years (1990–2010) in the agroecosystems of the Haihe Basin, China

Nitrogen Related Diffuse Pollution from Horticulture Production—Mitigation Practices and Assessment Strategies

Evaluation of phosphorus and nitrogen balances as an indicator for the impact of agriculture on environment: A comparison of a case study from Poland and Mississippi US

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