Short-term crop and soil response to C-friendly strategies in two contrasting environments

Alluvione, Francesco; Fiorentino, Nunzio; Bertora, Chiara; Zavattaro, Laura; Fagnano, Massimo; Chiaranda, F. Quaglietta; Grignani, Carlo

doi:10.1016/j.eja.2012.09.003

Cited by 46 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…Best results with compost were obtained when vegetables (leeks, Brussels sprouts) and peas were cropped, while grain maize and barley yield was notably depressed. As several authors report (Alluvione et al, 2013), compost can release nutrients slowly and immobilisation can occur in the first years of supply. Therefore, it is not surprising that good results with this fertilisation practice were observed only after some years of repeated additions (>5 years).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term effects of best management practices on crop yield and nitrogen surplus

et al. 2015

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Inherent in the concept of good agricultural practice (BMP) is that it improves resource use efficiency, mitigates environmental impact or increases farm profitability. However, it is usually impossible to achieve all the objectives, and trade-offs need to be accepted, such as a reduction in productivity together with a reduction in costs or an increase of soil organic matter. A European FP7 project, Catch-C (http://www.catch-c.eu) analyses the effects that different management practices have on productivity, mitigation of climate change and chemical, physical and biological soil fertility, based on simple indicators. Such indicators were collected from international literature, national scientific or technical journals, or grey literature that dealt with long-term field trials in Europe. We collected and analysed data from more than 350 experiments. This paper presents the overall results of the effects of a series of BMP have on crop productivity, soil nitrogen (N) uptake, N use efficiency end N balance. Important interactions with soil and climate types, crop and duration of the experiment were noticed for most BMPs. Rotations, also including double cropping, were among practices with more positive effects of productivity and N indicators. A slight reduction of yield counteracted benefits to soil quality and to climate change mitigation of minimum and no tillage, and of organic fertilisers.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term effects of best management practices on crop yield and nitrogen surplus

et al. 2015

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“…In sandy aerated soils, compost increased N availability to crops due to the high mineralisation rates (Fagnano et al, 2011;Alluvione et al, 2013) gaining a significant increase in biomass accumulation and N content. Since our experiment was carried out on a fertile soil (0.18 and 1.73% of N and C, respectively), we can also suppose there will be an effect of compost as growth regulator due to a hormone-like mechanism (Piccolo et al, 1996;Asli and Neumann, 2010).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assisted phytoextraction of heavy metals: compost and Trichoderma effects on giant reed (Arundo donax L.) uptake and soil N-cycle microflora

et al. 2013

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Little information is available as to the real effectiveness of the phytoextraction remediation technique, since laboratory experiments are still the most common way in which this is measured. Given this, an experiment on a cadmium-polluted soil was carried out in open field conditions in Southern Italy with the aim of assessing the growth and the phytoextraction potential of giant reed (Arundo donax L). Compost fertilisation and Trichoderma harzianum A6 inoculations were used to verify the possibility of increasing the metal uptake of the crop. Biomass yield of giant reed in the first growth season (average 12.8 Mg ha -1 ) was not affected by the Cd concentration in the soil and this increased significantly with compost fertilisation (13.8 Mg ha -1 ). Both compost fertilisation and T. harzianum inoculation increased cadmium uptake and translocation in leaves. Nitrifying bacteria was shown to be a useful tool to biomonitor soil quality. These results proved the suitability of the giant reed for assisted-phytoremedation with the use of compost fertilisation and T. harzianum. IntroductionThe extent of soil pollution by potentially toxic elements (PTE) in industrialised areas is well documented (Glass, 1998;Black, 1999) and represents an important environmental concern due to their potential accumulation in the food chain. Human activities such as industrial plants, mining, road transport and the unwise application of sewage sludges, fertilisers and pesticides to agricultural soils are recognised to be the main sources of PTE pollution (do Nascimento et al., 2006;Lado et al., 2008). A large number of methods are available to remediate soils, such as soil washing with synthetic surfactants. However, these are extremely expensive, such that a large number of sites remain contaminated (Ensley, 2000). Moreover, ex situ soil reclamation techniques lead to a big reduction in soil fertility due to the soil disturbance and to the toxicity of synthetic surfactants. Soil washing with humic substances extracted from composted organic matter or from geochemical deposits represents a reliable alternative (Conte et al., 2005) and phytoextraction is a valuable complementary technique. It is low cost and environmentally safe (Wu et al., 2006) and is able to both remove heavy metal pollutants from the soil and to offer important economic and agronomic advantages (Mattina et al., 2003). It involves the utilisation of plants to remove heavy metals from soil and concentrate them in the biomass. For years now, metal hyperaccumulating plants such as Alyssum murale, Berkheya coddii, Brassica juncea and Thlaspi caerulescens have been considered the most suitable tool to decontaminate metal-polluted soils, but the low biomass growth and scarce ability to accumulate various different metals together (Krämer, 2005) have discouraged their inclusion in commercial phytoextraction protocols (do Nascimento et al., 2006). Consequently, the current trend is to use fast-growing high biomass crops that accumulate moderate levels of metals in ...

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“…The higher CO 2 emissions (per unit of carbon present in the soil) from Cambisol were nevertheless a reflection of differences in the carbon pools. Such differences suggest that the Haploxerert had a relatively low respiration rate, which may have been a consequence of protection by the higher clay content in the Haploxerert of SOC pools (Baldock and Skjemstad 2000;Krull et al 2003;Lutzow et al 2006;Alluvione et al 2013;Six and Paustian 2014) and coupled with relatively low soil microbial activity due to a low free substrate availability. Another important aspect related to the clay content is its mineralogy; the Haploxerert is characterized by prominent swelling-shrinkage behaviour, which suggests that a high content of montmorillonite can slow down organic matter decomposition by absorption, interacting with soil microbes and their external enzyme activity or limiting oxygen diffusion (Vogel et al 2015).…”

Section: Comparisons Of Gas Measurement Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

An assessment of factors controlling N2O and CO2 emissions from crop residues using different measurement approaches

et al. 2017

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Management of plant residues plays an important role in maintaining soil quality and nutrient availability for plants and microbes. However, there is considerable uncertainty regarding the factors controlling residue decomposition and their effects on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the soil. This uncertainty is created both by the complexity of the processes involved and limitations in the methodologies commonly used to quantify GHG emissions. We therefore investigated the addition of two soil residues (durum wheat and faba bean) with similar C/N ratios but contrasting fibres, lignin and cellulose contents on nutrient dynamics and GHG emission from two contrasting soils: a low-soil organic carbon (SOC), high pH clay soil (Chromic Haploxerert) and a high-SOC, low pH sandy-loam soil (Eutric Cambisol). In addition, we compared the effectiveness of the use of an infrared gas analyser (IRGA) and a photoacoustic gas analyser (PGA) to measure GHG emissions with more conventional gas chromatography (GC). There was a strong correlation between the different measurement techniques which strengthens the case for the use of continuous measurement approaches involving IRGA and PGA analyses in studies of this type. The unamended Cambisol released 286% more CO 2 and 30% more N 2 O than the Haploxerert. Addition of plant residues increased CO 2 emissions more in the Haploxerert than Cambisol and N 2 O emission more in the Cambisol than in the Haploxerert. This may have been a consequence of the high N stabilization efficiency of the Haploxerert resulting from its high pH and the effect of the clay on mineralization of native organic matter. These results have implication management of plant residues in different soil types.

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Short-term crop and soil response to C-friendly strategies in two contrasting environments

Cited by 46 publications

References 90 publications

Long-term effects of best management practices on crop yield and nitrogen surplus

Long-term effects of best management practices on crop yield and nitrogen surplus

Assisted phytoextraction of heavy metals: compost and Trichoderma effects on giant reed (Arundo donax L.) uptake and soil N-cycle microflora

An assessment of factors controlling N2O and CO2 emissions from crop residues using different measurement approaches

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