Modeling nitrous oxide emissions from organic and conventional cereal-based cropping systems under different management, soil and climate factors

doi:10.1016/j.eja.2015.02.002

European Journal of Agronomy

Volume 66, May 2015, Pages 8-20

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2015.02.002 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Evaluation of FASSET 2.5 for modeling N₂O emissions in different cereal systems.
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Soil, climate, cropping system and fertility management factors were investigated.
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The magnitude of N₂O emissions was most affected by the environmental conditions.
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The model generally reproduced well the effects of the factors investigated.
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Uncertainty of simulated N₂O fluxes increased with the magnitude of the emissions.

Abstract

Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture should be assessed across cropping systems and agroclimatic regions. In this study, we investigate the ability of the FASSET model to analyze differences in the magnitude of N₂O emissions due to soil, climate and management factors in cereal-based cropping systems. Forage maize was grown in a conventional dairy system at Mabegondo (NW Spain) and wheat and barley in organic and conventional crop rotations at Foulum (NW Denmark). These two European sites represent agricultural areas with high and low to moderate emission levels, respectively. Field trials included plots with and without catch crops that were fertilized with either mineral N fertilizer, cattle slurry, pig slurry or digested manure. Non-fertilized treatments were also included. Measurements of N₂O fluxes during the growing cycle of all the crops at both sites were performed with the static chamber method with more frequent measurements post-fertilization and biweekly measurements when high fluxes were not expected. All cropping systems were simulated with the FASSET version 2.5 simulation model. Cumulative soil seasonal N₂O emissions were about ten-fold higher at Mabegondo than at Foulum when averaged across systems and treatments (8.99 and 0.71 kg N₂O-N ha⁻¹, respectively). The average simulated cumulative soil N₂O emissions were 9.03 and 1.71 kg N₂O-N ha⁻¹ at Mabegondo and at Foulum, respectively. Fertilization, catch crops and cropping systems had lower influence on the seasonal soil N₂O fluxes than the environmental factors. Overall, in its current version FASSET reproduced the effects of the different factors investigated on the cumulative seasonal soil N₂O emissions but temporally it overestimated emissions from nitrification and denitrification on particular days when soil operations, ploughing or fertilization, took place. The errors associated with simulated daily soil N₂O fluxes increased with the magnitude of the emissions. For resolving causes of differences in simulated and measured fluxes more intensive and temporally detailed measurements of N₂O fluxes and soil C and N dynamics would be needed.

Introduction

Agricultural practices such as soil tillage, nitrogen (N) fertilization and residue management, may significantly influence soil nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions during and after the crop growing season (Mutegi et al., 2010, Van Groenigen et al., 2010, Brozyna et al., 2013). Moreover, soil properties and climatic factors affect the processes responsible for both N₂O production and emission. In order to mitigate climate change and the associated impacts, it is particularly important to identify and adopt crop management practices that most effectively reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural soils in cropping systems covering major areas within each agro-climatic region as well as from cropping systems that, due to climate and/or soil factors, have a high risk of GHG emissions (IPCC, 2014).

Lesschen et al. (2011) proposed a correction to the default IPCC emission factors (EF) that considered management and environmental variables such as precipitation and soil type for different regions across Europe. Also Li et al. (2001), based on predictions from an agro-ecosystem simulation model, found that soil organic matter (SOM) content was the main driver of variability in GHG emissions from fertilizer applications in China. It is therefore, essential to have reliable tools that can aid understanding and quantification of differences in N₂O emissions among different N management options under specific agro-climatic regions (Butterbach-Bahl et al., 2013). Such tools would allow us to identify those measures that have the highest N use efficiency, provide better N cycling and reduce environmental impacts from nitrate leaching to groundwater and surface water and climate impacts from N₂O emissions.

The ability of biogeochemical models to integrate complex processes controlling N₂O production, consumption and transport make them important tools for evaluating N₂O emissions from different cropping systems and assessing emissions from agricultural systems at both regional and global scales. Examples of the use of process-based models to assess N₂O emissions from different cropping systems are Li et al. (2004) with DNDC, Del Grosso et al. (2005) with DAYCENT, Chatskikh et al. (2005) with FASSET and Metay et al. (2011) with NOE.

Chirinda et al. (2011) tested the FASSET model against data from different organic arable farming systems and concluded that the model was capable of simulating trends of seasonal soil N₂O emissions, but it showed deficiencies in modeling SOM turnover that affected the predictions of heterotrophic soil respiration in systems that included catch crops. A reformulation of the function used in the model to represent soil tillage has been implemented in FASSET 2.5. This allows for a more realistic distribution of crop residues in the soil profile after soil operations (tillage and harrowing) to simulate a non-homogenous distribution of crop residues.

In our study, we investigate the ability of FASSET 2.5 to analyze differences in the magnitude of N₂O emissions due to (a) management factors, including N management in organic and conventional cropping systems with and without catch crops and (b) environmental factors (soil and climate) in two cereal-based cropping systems representing major agricultural areas in each region. Forage maize in the Atlantic North Spain (Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and Basque Country) represents 77% of the area dedicated to this crop in the country and 94% if only rainfed forage maize is considered (MAGRAMA, 2012). Winter wheat represents about 44% of the total cereal area in Denmark and together with spring barley they constitute about 30% of the area under organic farming (Plantedirektoratet, 2009). According to Lesschen et al. (2011), the cereal-based cropping systems investigated in this study were located in an area with high (Galicia, Spain) and low to moderate (Central Jutland, Denmark) risk of soil N₂O emissions.

Section snippets

Forage maize experiments at Mabegondo (Galicia, Spain)

Field trials with forage maize (Zea mays L.) in a conventional dairy system were performed for two growing seasons (2009 and 2010) on a silty loam soil at Mabegondo (Galicia) in North West Spain. The site has a South Atlantic climate (Iglesias et al., 2009) with an annual average temperature and precipitation of 13.1 °C and 1101 mm, respectively, for the period 1998–2007. The daily pattern of these two climatic variables during the years studied (Apr 09–Oct10) is shown in Fig. 1. Main site and

Observed and simulated cumulative seasonal N₂O fluxes

The observed and simulated cumulative soil N₂O emissions in the different cereal-based cropping systems are shown in Table 3. The cumulative fluxes are from sowing to harvest in maize, while for winter wheat and spring barley they may comprise pre-sowing and/or post-harvest dates depending on the systems and years. Cumulative soil seasonal emissions were about ten-fold higher for the silty loam soil in North Spain in comparison with the loamy sand soil in Denmark when averaged across systems

Influence of soil type and climate on soil N₂O emissions in cereal-based systems

Simulating the cereal systems at Foulum using soil and climate inputs used for Mabegondo increased the seasonal N₂O emissions to the levels found at the Spanish site (results not shown). Thus, according to FASSET simulations the differences in the magnitude of emissions between regions would be mainly due to soil characteristics, influenced by historical soil management, and to patterns of temperature and precipitation (Table 1, Fig. 1). While the cumulative seasonal soil N₂O fluxes at Foulum

Conclusions

The environmental factors such as temperature and soil characteristics, influenced by historical soil management, appear to be the main drivers for the ten-fold difference in N₂O emissions between the Mabegondo and Foulum sites. Fertilizer management, catch crops and cropping systems had a lower influence on the seasonal soil N₂O emissions compared to edaphoclimatic factors. FASSET version 2.5 was found to generally reproduce well the effects of the different factors investigated, i.e., soil,

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the projects RTA2012-00065-C05-03 funded by the Spanish National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA), 10MRU503001PR (Xunta de Galicia), the EU-FP7 LegumeFutures project (grant 245216) and the MACSUR project funded by the Danish Strategic Research Council (contract 0603-00507B). J. Doltra, via TAD/CRP JA00077691 fellowship under the OECD Co-operative Research Programme: Biological Resource Management for Sustainable Agricultural Systems.

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Modeling nitrous oxide emissions from organic and conventional cereal-based cropping systems under different management, soil and climate factors

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Forage maize experiments at Mabegondo (Galicia, Spain)

Observed and simulated cumulative seasonal N2O fluxes

Influence of soil type and climate on soil N2O emissions in cereal-based systems

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

Geoderma

Agric. Syst.

Eur. J. Agron.

Agric. Ecosyst. Environ.

Agric. Ecosyst. Environ.

Agric. Ecosyst. Environ.

Soil Tillage Res.

Eur. J. Argon.

Agric. Forest Meteorol.

Environ. Pollut.

Agric. Ecosyst. Environ.

Agric. Ecosyst. Environ.

Agric. Ecosyst. Environ.

Soil Biol. Biochem.

J. Hydrol.

Field Crops Res.

Eur. J. Argon.

Soil Biol. Biochem.

Field Crops Res.

Uncertainty in simulating wheat yields under climate change

Nat. Clim. Change

Direct emissions of nitrous oxide from agricultural soils

Nutr. Cycl. Agroecosyst.

Nitrous oxide emissions from soils: how well do we understand the processes and their controls?

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

Simulation of effects of soils: climate and management on N2O emission from grasslands

Biogeochem.

Simulating soil N2O emissions and heterotrophic CO2 respiration in arable systems using FASSET and MoBiLE-DNDC

Plant Soil

Testing a conceptual model of soil emissions of nitrous and nitric oxides

BioScience

Impacts of model structure and data aggregation on European wide predictions of nitrogen and greenhouse gas fluxes in response to changes in livestock, land cover, and land management

J. Integr. Environ. Sci.

Observed and simulated cumulative seasonal N₂O fluxes

Influence of soil type and climate on soil N₂O emissions in cereal-based systems

Simulation of effects of soils: climate and management on N₂O emission from grasslands

Simulating soil N₂O emissions and heterotrophic CO₂ respiration in arable systems using FASSET and MoBiLE-DNDC