Losses of nitrogen fertiliser under oil palm in Papua New Guinea: 1. Water balance, and nitrogen in soil solution and runoff

Banabas, Murom; Turner, Michael; Scotter, D. R.; Nelson, Paul N.

doi:10.1071/sr07171

Cited by 47 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…With respect to oil palm cultivation, individual villagers blamed the lack of environmental management and the absence of buffer zones along rivers for increases in the sediment load of local rivers over the last years. Fertilizer and possibly pesticide leaching were reported to be further sources of pollution in other studies (e.g., Banabas et al 2008, Comte et al 2012, Obidzinski et al 2012, Larsen et al 2014, Allen et al 2015, but were only mentioned by few villagers in our study.…”

Section: Local Evaluations Of Increasing Seasonal Water Scarcitymentioning

confidence: 60%

Water scarcity and oil palm expansion: social views and environmental processes

Merten¹,

Röll²,

Guillaume³

et al. 2016

E&S

104

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ABSTRACT. Conversions of natural ecosystems, e.g., from rain forests to managed plantations, result in significant changes in the hydrological cycle including periodic water scarcity. In Indonesia, large areas of forest were lost and extensive oil palm plantations were established over the last decades. We conducted a combined social and environmental study in a region of recent land-use change, the Jambi Province on Sumatra. The objective was to derive complementary lines of arguments to provide balanced insights into environmental perceptions and eco-hydrological processes accompanying land-use change. Interviews with villagers highlighted concerns regarding decreasing water levels in wells during dry periods and increasing fluctuations in stream flow between rainy and dry periods. Periodic water scarcity was found to severely impact livelihoods, which increased social polarization. Sap flux measurements on forest trees and oil palms indicate that oil palm plantations use as much water as forests for transpiration. Eddy covariance analyses of evapotranspiration over oil palm point to substantial additional sources of evaporation in oil palm plantations such as the soil and epiphytes. Stream base flow from a catchment dominated by oil palms was lower than from a catchment dominated by rubber plantations; both showed high peaks after rainfall. An estimate of erosion indicated approximately 30 cm of topsoil loss after forest conversion to both oil palm and rubber plantations. Analyses of climatic variables over the last 20 years and of a standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index for the last century suggested that droughts are recurrent in the area, but have not increased in frequency or intensity. Consequently, we assume that conversions of rain forest ecosystems to oil palm plantations lead to a redistribution of precipitated water by runoff, which leads to the reported periodic water scarcity. Our combined social and environmental approach points to significant and thus far neglected eco-hydrological consequences of oil palm expansion.

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Section: Local Evaluations Of Increasing Seasonal Water Scarcitymentioning

confidence: 60%

Water scarcity and oil palm expansion: social views and environmental processes

Merten¹,

Röll²,

Guillaume³

et al. 2016

E&S

104

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Similarly, rubber plantations have environmental impacts such as reducing the soil infiltration capacity, accelerating soil erosion, increasing stream sediment loads (Ziegler et al, 2009;Tarigan et al, 2016b), and decreasing soil carbon stocks (Ziegler et al, 2011). Furthermore, the conversion of tropical rainforest into oil palm and rubber plantations affects the local hydrological cycle by increasing transpiration (Ziegler et al, 2009;Sterling et al, 2012;Röll et al, 2015;Hardanto et al, 2017), increasing evapotranspiration (ET) , decreasing infiltration (Banabas et al, 2008;Tarigan et al, 2016b), increasing the flooding frequency (Tarigan, 2016a), and decreasing low flow levels (Yusop et al, 2007;Adnan and Atkinson, 2011;Comte et al, 2012;Merten et al, 2016). These climatic impacts that occur due to land use change are expected to be stronger under maritime conditions, such as those in Indonesia, than under continental conditions because 40 % of the global tropical latent heating of the upper troposphere occurs over the maritime continent (Van der Molen et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Minimum forest cover required for sustainable water flow regulation of a watershed: a case study in Jambi Province, Indonesia

Tarigan

Wiegand²,

Sunarti³

et al. 2018

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. In many tropical regions, the rapid expansion of monoculture plantations has led to a sharp decline in forest cover, potentially degrading the ability of watersheds to regulate water flow. Therefore, regional planners need to determine the minimum proportion of forest cover that is required to support adequate ecosystem services in these watersheds. However, to date, there has been little research on this issue, particularly in tropical areas where monoculture plantations are expanding at an alarming rate. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the influence of forest cover and oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) and rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) plantations on the partitioning of rainfall into direct runoff and subsurface flow in a humid, tropical watershed in Jambi Province, Indonesia. To do this, we simulated streamflow with a calibrated Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model and observed several watersheds to derive the direct runoff coefficient (C) and baseflow index (BFI). The model had a strong performance, with Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency values of 0.80-0.88 (calibration) and 0.80-0.85 (validation) and percent bias values of −2.9-1.2 (calibration) and 7.0-11.9 (validation). We found that the percentage of forest cover in a watershed was significantly negatively correlated with C and significantly positively correlated with BFI, whereas the rubber and oil palm plantation cover showed the opposite pattern. Our findings also suggested that at least 30 % of the forest cover was required in the study area for sustainable ecosystem services. This study provides new adjusted crop parameter values for monoculture plantations, particularly those that control surface runoff and baseflow processes, and it also describes the quantitative association between forest cover and flow indicators in a watershed, which will help regional planners in determining the minimum proportion of forest and the maximum proportion of plantation to ensure that a watershed can provide adequate ecosystem services.

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“…Moreover, fertilizer placement may have a significant effect on leaching because of the spatial variability of application rate, rainfall as through fall and stem flow, and N uptake (Banabas et al 2008;Schroth et al 2000). However, there is little information about the spatial distribution of NO 3 − leaching within the plantation.…”

Section: Soluble Forms Of N (Nomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, it can be noted that in a given situation, there is a balance between runoff/ erosion losses and leaching losses, in which soil permeability plays an important role. For instance, in Papua New Guinea, Banabas et al 2008 estimated losses through leaching at about 37-103 kg N ha −1 year −1 and negligible runoff, even with a high rainfall of 3000 mm year −1…”

Section: N Losses Through Runoff and Erosionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2) as a solute (NO 3 − and NH 4 + ) or as eroded particles of soil containing N. Corley and Tinker (2003) and Comte et al (2012) reviewed measurements of N losses through runoff and erosion from oil palm plantations. Research was done in Malaysia from the 1970s to the 1990s (Maena et al 1979;Kee and Chew 1996) and more recently in Papua New Guinea (Banabas et al 2008) and Sumatra (Ribka 2014). The main variables studied were the effect of soil type, slope, and spatial heterogeneity resulting from management practices, such as soil cover management.…”

Section: N Losses Through Runoff and Erosionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Key unknowns in nitrogen budget for oil palm plantations. A review

Pardon

Bessou

Nelson

et al. 2016

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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Nitrogen (N) losses in agroecosystems are a major environmental and economic issue. This issue is particularly pronounced in oil palm cultivation because oil palm production area is expected to increase to 12 Mha by 2050. N fertilization in oil palm plantations is mainly provided by mineral fertilizers, palm oil mill by-products, and biological fixation using legume cover crops. N loss has a major environmental impact during cultivation. For instance, 48.7 % of the greenhouse gases emitted to produce 1 t of palm oil fruit are due to N fertilization. Actually, there is little comprehensive knowledge on how to calculate N budgets in oil palm plantation in order to optimize fertilization, taking into account N leaching and N gases emissions. Here we modeled knowledge about all N fluxes in an oil palm field following standard management practices of industrial plantations, on a mineral soil, from planting to felling after a 25-year-growth cycle. The largest fluxes are internal fluxes, such as oil palm uptake, with 40-380 kg N ha, and the decomposition of felled palms at the end of the cycle, with 465-642 kg N ha

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Losses of nitrogen fertiliser under oil palm in Papua New Guinea: 1. Water balance, and nitrogen in soil solution and runoff

Cited by 47 publications

References 2 publications

Water scarcity and oil palm expansion: social views and environmental processes

Water scarcity and oil palm expansion: social views and environmental processes

Minimum forest cover required for sustainable water flow regulation of a watershed: a case study in Jambi Province, Indonesia

Key unknowns in nitrogen budget for oil palm plantations. A review

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