Nitrate leaching from the critical root zone of maize in two tropical highlands of Tanzania: Effects of fertilizer-nitrogen rate and straw incorporation

Zheng, Jinsen; Qu, Yanghua; Kilasara, Method; Mmari, William N.; Funakawa, Shinya

doi:10.1016/j.still.2019.104295

Cited by 26 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…3 ) is one of the most serious environmental problems and is positively related to high nitrogen fertilization rates (Vinod et al 2015;Zheng et al 2019). Thus, to reduce the groundwater pollution with nitrates, it is important to reduce the excess application of inorganic fertilizers in agricultural fields and/or to apply organic nitrogen sources such as compost or manure.…”

Section: Nitrogen Supply Via Biological Nitrogen Fixation (Bnf)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Biology of Legumes and Their Agronomic, Economic, and Social Impact

Vasconcelos

Grusak

Pinto

et al. 2020

The Plant Family Fabaceae

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Section: Nitrogen Supply Via Biological Nitrogen Fixation (Bnf)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Biology of Legumes and Their Agronomic, Economic, and Social Impact

Vasconcelos

Grusak

Pinto

et al. 2020

The Plant Family Fabaceae

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“…However, only 27-40% of applied N is taken up by crops [4]. The retained N is lost in soil through nitrate leaching, runoff and N oxides emission [5], resulting in nitrate contamination and green house pollution [6][7][8]. Therefore, improving N use efficiency has become a significant concern for agricultural sustainable development in the YRD.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Structure and Diversity of Nitrogen Functional Groups from Different Cropping Systems in Yellow River Delta

Miao

Zhang

et al. 2020

Microorganisms

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The Yellow River Delta (YRD) region is an important production base in Shandong Province. It encompasses an array of diversified crop systems, including the corn–wheat rotation system (Wheat–Corn), soybean–corn rotation system (Soybean–Corn), fruits or vegetables system (Fruit), cotton system (Cotton) and rice system (Rice). In this study, the communities of ammonia oxidizer–, denitrifier– and nitrogen (N)–fixing bacteria in those cropping systems were investigated by Illumina Miseq sequencing. We found that Rice soil exhibited significantly higher diversity indices of investigated N–cycling microbial communities than other crop soils, possibly due to its high soil water content. Wheat–Corn soils had higher abundances of nitrification gene amoA and denitrification genes nirK and nirS, and exhibited higher soil potential nitrification rate (PNR), compared with Soybean–Corn, Cotton and Fruit soils. Consistently, redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that soil water content (SWC), electrical conductivity (EC), and total nitrogen (TN) were the most important influencing factors of the diversity and structure of the investigated N–cycling microbial.

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“…Recent studies (Powlson et al, 2016; Zheng et al, 2019b) have raised the concern that agricultural practices aiming at SOC sequestration in SSA croplands (e.g., residue retention plus fertilizer‐N addition; Kimani et al, 2003) may not reach a climate mitigation due to the concomitant increase in N 2 O emission. Here we addressed this concern and show that, despite that additional amounts of N 2 O were emitted once combining residue with fertilizer‐N, the net GWP was overall negative (Figure 4b,d).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Local farmers generally burn the crop residues during the dry season, and commonly tilled the field prior to seeding. Further information on the land use and management can be found in Zheng et al (2019a, 2019b).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cropland intensification mediates the radiative balance of greenhouse gas emissions and soil carbon sequestration in maize systems of sub‐Saharan Africa

Zheng

Canarini

Fujii

et al. 2022

Global Change Biology

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Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) must undertake proper cropland intensification for higher crop yields while minimizing climate impacts. Unfortunately, no studies have simultaneously quantified greenhouse gas (GHG; CO 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 O) emissions and soil organic carbon (SOC) change in SSA croplands, leaving it a blind spot in the accounting of global warming potential (GWP). Here, based on 2-year field monitoring of soil emissions of CO 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 O, as well as SOC changes in two contrasting soil types (sandy vs. clayey), we provided the first, full accounting of GWP for maize systems in response to cropland intensifications (increasing nitrogen rates and in combination with crop residue return) in SSA. To corroborate our field observations on SOC change (i.e., 2-year, a short duration), we implemented a process-oriented model parameterized with field data to simulate SOC dynamic over time. We further tested the generality of our findings by including a literature synthesis of SOC change across maize-based systems in SSA. We found that nitrogen application reduced SOC loss, likely through increased biomass yield and consequently belowground carbon allocation. Residue return switched the direction of SOC change from loss to gain; such a benefit (SOC sequestration) was not compromised by CH 4 emissions (negligible) nor outweighed by the amplified N 2 O emissions, and contributed to negative net GWP.Overall, we show encouraging results that, combining residue and fertilizer-nitrogen input allowed for sequestering 82-284 kg of CO 2 -eq per Mg of maize grain produced across two soils. All analyses pointed to an advantage of sandy over clayey soils in achieving higher SOC sequestration targets, and thus call for a re-evaluation on the potential of sandy soils in SOC sequestration across SSA croplands. Our findings carry important implications for developing viable intensification practices for SSA croplands in mitigating climate change while securing food production.

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Nitrate leaching from the critical root zone of maize in two tropical highlands of Tanzania: Effects of fertilizer-nitrogen rate and straw incorporation

Cited by 26 publications

References 45 publications

The Biology of Legumes and Their Agronomic, Economic, and Social Impact

The Biology of Legumes and Their Agronomic, Economic, and Social Impact

The Structure and Diversity of Nitrogen Functional Groups from Different Cropping Systems in Yellow River Delta

Cropland intensification mediates the radiative balance of greenhouse gas emissions and soil carbon sequestration in maize systems of sub‐Saharan Africa

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