Elsevier

Pedosphere

Volume 29, Issue 4, August 2019, Pages 432-443
Pedosphere

Evaluating Emissions of Nitrous Oxide from Cropland Soils Under Different Rotations in Mato Grosso, Brazil: A Scenario Simulation Study

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1002-0160(19)60812-XGet rights and content

Abstract

Expansion of cropland involves immense land use changes, and the resulting intensified management practices have a strong influence on the functioning of the underlying soil. For instance, increased application of nitrogen (N) fertilizer is known to enhance fluxes of nitrous oxide (N2O) from the soil to the atmosphere. The emission factor (EF) proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assumes a linear relationship between added N and N2O-N fluxes, but it does not account for environmental factors, such as soil properties or climate. Due to the high spatial and temporal variability of N2O-N fluxes, mechanistic models are preferable in terms of extrapolation to larger scales. In this study, we evaluated simulated N2O-N fluxes from soils under agricultural use in the Brazilian state, Mato Grosso, using the CANDY (Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics) model. A control tool was developed in order to enable the simulation of 1 650 scenarios covering different sites (soil + climate) and management regimes (crop rotation + amount of applied fertilizer + sowing and harvesting dates). Results suggested that the sites had a very strong influence on calculated emissions, which is not accounted for by static EF. Furthermore, most fertilizer-induced N2O-N fluxes derived from the scenario simulations were best described by a non-linear function. For sounder budgeting on the federal and national scale, there is still a strong need for long-term observations of continuous crop rotations and spatial distribution of soil types and their specific characteristics. The presented results provide a valuable starting point for developing further scenario simulations and adapting experimental campaigns for N2O emission study.

References (53)

  • H Akaike

    Information theory and an extension of the maximum likelihood principle

  • Brazilian Agricultural Ministry

    Séries históricas (Historical Series) (in Portuguese)

  • S Brocks et al.

    A regionally disaggregated inventory of nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural soils in Germany—a GIS-based empirical approach

    Erdkunde

    (2014)
  • M Carauta et al.

    Assessing the full distribution of greenhouse gas emissions from crop, livestock and commercial forestry plantations in Brazil’s Southern Amazon

  • M T de M Carvalho et al.

    Nitrogen fluxes from irrigated common-bean as affected by mulching and mineral fertilization

    Pesq Agropec Bras

    (2013)
  • M R Coelho et al.

    Orecurso natural solo (The natural resources of soil)

  • M Cooper et al.

    A national soil profile database for Brazil available to international scientists

    Soil Sci Soc Am J

    (2005)
  • E B F Cruvinel et al.

    Soil emissions of NO, N2O and CO2 from croplands in the savanna region of central Brazil

    Agr Ecosyst Environ

    (2011)
  • C de Klein et al.

    N2O emissions from managed soils, and CO2 emissions from lime and urea application

  • F de Mendiburu

    Agricolae: Statistical procedures for agricultural research. R package version 1.2-8

  • J H G dos Santos et al.

    Emissão de oxido nitroso derivada do cultivo de feijoeiro comum (3a safra) seguido de milho em latossolo de Cerrado (Emission of nitrous oxide derived from common bean (3rd crop) followed by corn in Cerrado latosol)

    Documentos IAC Campinas (in Portuguese)

    (2008)
  • T V Elzhov et al.

    Minpack.lm: R interface to the Levenberg-Marquardt nonlinear least-squares algorithm found in MINPACK, plus support for bounds. R package version 1.2-1

  • L F Escobar et al.

    Postharvest nitrous oxide emissions from a subtropical oxisol as influenced by summer crop residues and their management

    Rev Bras Ciênc Solo

    (2010)
  • M K Firestone et al.

    Microbiological basis of NO and N2O production and consumption in soil

  • U Franko et al.

    CANDY Manual—Description of Background

    (2015)
  • S E Frolking et al.

    Comparison of N2O emissions from soils at three temperate agricultural sites: Simulations of year-round measurements by four models

    Nutr Cycl Agroecosys

    (1998)
  • Cited by (3)

    • Soil formation and properties along a sedimentary lithosequence in the ecotonal Cerrados of Mato Grosso, Brazil

      2022, Catena
      Citation Excerpt :

      Studies on soil genesis in these ecological transitions are still incipient, as most soil surveys where of very small scale and carried out in the 1980́s. Although some relevant works focused on soils of the Pantanal wetlands (e.g., Coringa et al., 2012, 2014) and others studied soil fertility and changes due to agricultural management (Hunke et al., 2015; Meurer et al.; 2019; Roy et al., 2017), a considerable portion of Mato Grosso soils has never been investigated with regard to their genesis and composition, even where annual mechanized agriculture is already established, with a few recent exceptions that focused on a basalt-developed toposequence (e.g., Lima et al., 2021). Soil genesis and development in the Cerrado biome is typically marked by the following combination of soil-forming factors: a) large areas of sedimentary formations, typically composed by pre-weathered, nutrient-poor materials; b) predominance of very old planation surfaces of at least Cretaceous age (Silva, 2009), i.e. long time of soil formation, which also resulted in gently rolling or near flat slopes; and c) year-round warm temperatures and intense summer precipitations coupled with dry winters.

    • Climate-related land use policies in Brazil: How much has been achieved with economic incentives in agriculture?

      2021, Land Use Policy
      Citation Excerpt :

      This model was originally developed to describe carbon turnover in agriculturally used soils under temperate conditions. The model has recently been extended to reproduce observed N2ON fluxes from soils under Brazilian cattle pastures (Meurer et al., 2016) and cropland, and to evaluate N2ON emissions under different crop rotations in Mato Grosso (Meurer et al., 2019). Gaseous N losses are assumed to result from denitrification, which is regulated by soil moisture and soil temperature.

    1

    Present address: Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala 75007, Sweden

    View full text