Potential measures to reduce nitrate and nitrous oxide losses from renovated grasslands

作者：Jordy van 't Hull, Jantine van Middelkoop, H. van Schooten, Mart Ros, Jan Willem van Groenigen, G.L. Velthof · 发表于：Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.agee.2025.109549 · 被引用次数：5 · 研究领域：Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics、Soil and Water Nutrient Dynamics、Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology

Grassland renovation (grassland renewal or temporary conversion to arable land) is a common practice employed by farmers to reverse declining yields in agricultural grasslands. Renovation practices may lead to substantial nitrate (NO 3 ) leaching and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions. Farmers lean towards renovating grasslands in autumn instead of spring because of better sward establishment and low weed infestation. Limited nitrogen (N) uptake of renewed grassland during autumn may, however, increase the potential risk of NO 3 leaching and N 2 O emission. Potential options to mitigate these N losses are reduction in tillage intensity and N application rate, or the application of nitrification inhibitors. We assessed the effects of these measures as well as timing of renewal and the conversion to grassland to maize on NO 3 leaching and N 2 O emissions after one growing season. Five replicated field experiments were conducted of one year each at five locations in the Netherlands. We measured crop yield, soil mineral N, NO 3 concentrations in groundwater and N 2 O emission. Averaged over all experiments, the measures had an effect on NO 3 concentration in groundwater, although not significant. The highest NO 3 concentrations in groundwater were observed after autumn renewal (17.2 mg NO 3 -N L −1 ), autumn renewal combined with mitigation strategies (12.8–19.4 mg NO 3 -N L −1 ) and conversion to maize (12.5–12.8 mg NO 3 -N L −1 ), with all of these treatments exceeding the Europea...