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Agriculture
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Soil Carbon and Nitrogen in Agricultural Systems
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Soil Carbon and Nitrogen in Agricultural Systems

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Soils".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 April 2022) | Viewed by 28424

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Laura Zavattaro

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Torino, 2, Largo Paolo Braccini, IT10095 Grugliasco, Torino, Italy
Interests: nitrogen cycling; nitrate leaching; carbon cycling; organic matter decomposition; crop management practices; forage crops; forage system design; fertilization
Dr. José Alfonso Gómez

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, CSIC, Córdoba, Spain
Interests: soil management; cover crops; modeling; erosion; water; landscape; desertification; GIS
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Soil organic matter plays a fundamental role in making the soil what it is: a place where plants, microbes, and animals can live and benefit from each other. Without it, nutrient flows would not close into cycles. The stability and turnover of soil carbon pools and inputs (such as crop residues, green manure, roots, manures, organic fertilizers, and composts) are strongly influenced by their nitrogen contents. Conversely, soil mineral nitrogen availability to plants and micro-organisms depends on the type and amount of carbon to which organic N is associated, leading to mineralization and immobilization processes. The contemporary availability of C and N sources dominates the processes that produce greenhouse gases (GHGs). The complex interconnections between C and N in soil need particular attention in modern agriculture, which is aimed not only at production but also at providing agroecosystem services. This is particularly true in production methods that put soil organic matter (SOM) preservation and soil health enhancement at the core of farmers’ attention, such as conservation agriculture, agroecology, integrated crop–livestock production, and agroforestry.

This Special Issue is focused on carbon and nitrogen interaction in soils. Its aim is to provide insights into the complex interconnections between the cycles of the two elements in the soil. Manuscripts dealing with C and N turnover, C sequestration, mineralization of crop residues, green manure, added manures, or organic fertilizers, influence of mineral fertilization on SOM turnover, microbial transformations, GHG emissions, N availability, C and N modeling, or DSTs, at various study scales and using various approaches, will be considered.

Dr. Laura Zavattaro
Dr. José Alfonso Gómez
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • soil organic matter turnover
  • nutrient cycling
  • soil health
  • carbon transformations
  • N availability
  • agricultural systems

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 2512 KiB  
Article
Soil Organic Matter Storage in Irrigated Tsitsikamma Dairy Farms with Minimum Tilled Pasture Mixtures: Case Studies
by Palo Francis Loke, Elmarie Kotzé and Christiaan Cornelius Du Preez
Agriculture 2022, 12(6), 858; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12060858 - 14 Jun 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2509
Abstract
In recent years, pasture production changed from conventional tilled single pastures to minimum tilled mixed pastures in the Tsitsikamma region, South Africa. However, storage of soil organic matter (SOM) under minimum tilled mixed pastures is not yet quantified. This study evaluated SOM indices [...] Read more.
In recent years, pasture production changed from conventional tilled single pastures to minimum tilled mixed pastures in the Tsitsikamma region, South Africa. However, storage of soil organic matter (SOM) under minimum tilled mixed pastures is not yet quantified. This study evaluated SOM indices in the upper 60 cm soil of six-year-old mixed pastures in the Upper (UT) and Lower (LT) Tsitsikamma regions. Soil samples were collected at 0–15, 15–30, 30–45, and 45–60 cm soil layers of five farms (F1, F2, F3, F4, and F5) treated with different rates of fertilizer (NPK) alone and in combination with dairy effluent (DE) and/or poultry manure (PM). Results of this study indicated that there were no significant differences in bulk density, total nitrogen (N), and rate of potentially mineralizable N (PMN) between farms in the UT region. In the LT region, NPK, DE, and PM combinations improved soil C accumulation relative to the soil application of NPK. Higher C/N ratios in the LT region suggested adequate C for microbial energy and maintenance. Integrating manure into minimum tilled pasture mixtures as a replacement for synthetic fertilizers seems to be a feasible option to promote SOM storage, but remains only feasible by applying site-specific management strategies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Carbon and Nitrogen in Agricultural Systems)
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15 pages, 1886 KiB  
Article
Comparison of Soil Organic Carbon Stocks Evolution in Two Olive Orchards with Different Planting Systems in Southern Spain
by José A. Gómez, Lizardo Reyna-Bowen, Pilar Fernández Rebollo and María-Auxiliadora Soriano
Agriculture 2022, 12(3), 432; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12030432 - 20 Mar 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3651
Abstract
This study presents an evaluation of soil organic carbon (SOC) and stock (SOCstock) for the whole rooting depth (60 cm), spaced 55 months in two adjacent olive orchards with similar conditions but different tree densities: (i) intensive, planted in 1996 at [...] Read more.
This study presents an evaluation of soil organic carbon (SOC) and stock (SOCstock) for the whole rooting depth (60 cm), spaced 55 months in two adjacent olive orchards with similar conditions but different tree densities: (i) intensive, planted in 1996 at 310 tree ha−1; (ii) superintensive, planted in 2000 at 1850 tree ha−1. This was carried out to test the hypothesis that olive orchards at different plant densities will have different rates of accumulation of SOC in the whole soil rooting depth. SOC increased significantly in the superintensive orchard during the 55-month period, from 1.1 to 1.6% in the lane area, and from 1.2 to 1.7% in the tree area (average 0–60 cm), with a significant increase in SOCstock from 4.7 to 6.1 kg m−2. In the intensive orchard, there was not a significant increase in SOCstock in 0–60 cm, average of 4.06 and 4.16 kg m−2 in 2013 and 2018, respectively. Results indicate a potential for a significant increase in SOC and SOCstock in olive orchards at higher tree densities when combined with temporary cover crops and mulch of chopped pruning residues. The increase is associated with an increase in SOC, mainly at a 0–15 cm depth. Results also point to the need for improve our monitoring capabilities to detect moderate increases in SOC. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Carbon and Nitrogen in Agricultural Systems)
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13 pages, 2043 KiB  
Article
Organic Manure Increases Carbon Sequestration Far beyond the “4 per 1000 Initiative” Goal on a Sandy Soil in the Thyrow Long-Term Field Experiment DIV.2
by Christina-Luise Roß, Michael Baumecker, Frank Ellmer and Timo Kautz
Agriculture 2022, 12(2), 170; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12020170 - 25 Jan 2022
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 5191
Abstract
Carbon sequestration has been proposed as a way to mitigate the impact of CO2 on the climate. At the COP21, the ‘4 per 1000 Soils for Food Security and Climate’ initiative was launched with the goal to increase global soil organic carbon [...] Read more.
Carbon sequestration has been proposed as a way to mitigate the impact of CO2 on the climate. At the COP21, the ‘4 per 1000 Soils for Food Security and Climate’ initiative was launched with the goal to increase global soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks by 4‰ per year. The Thyrow long-term field experiment DIV.2 was chosen to determine the feasibility of this 4 per 1000 goal under the dry and sandy conditions in Eastern Germany. The effects of different fertilizing regimes on SOC contents and winter rye yields were investigated. Winter rye is a representative crop for the region and grown as a monoculture in the experiment. The 4 per 1000 goal was achieved in all treatments including the unfertilized control, although ploughing takes place and straw is removed every year. The highest carbon sequestration of up to 0.5 t ha−1 a−1 was provided by a combination of mineral and manure fertilization. In three out of four years, no yield difference was observed between mineral-only fertilization (120 kg ha−1 N) and a combination of mineral and organic N (97.4 kg ha−1 plant available N) fertilization. Yields increased over the years in the treatment with pure organic N and decreased in all other treatments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Carbon and Nitrogen in Agricultural Systems)
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24 pages, 2256 KiB  
Article
Relative Importance of Plant Species Composition and Environmental Factors in Affecting Soil Carbon Stocks of Alpine Pastures (NW Italy)
by Simone Ravetto Enri, Fabio Petrella, Fabrizio Ungaro, Laura Zavattaro, Andrea Mainetti, Giampiero Lombardi and Michele Lonati
Agriculture 2021, 11(11), 1047; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11111047 - 26 Oct 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3005
Abstract
Alpine pastures are agricultural systems with a high provision of ecosystem services, which include carbon (C) stocking. Particularly, the soil organic C (SOC) stocks of Alpine pastures may play a pivotal role in counteracting global climate change. Even if the importance of pasture [...] Read more.
Alpine pastures are agricultural systems with a high provision of ecosystem services, which include carbon (C) stocking. Particularly, the soil organic C (SOC) stocks of Alpine pastures may play a pivotal role in counteracting global climate change. Even if the importance of pasture SOC has been stated by several research studies, especially by comparing different land uses, little is known about the role of plant species composition. We studied a wide sample of 324 pastures in the north-western Italian Alps by performing coupled vegetation and soil surveys. Climatic (i.e., mean annual precipitation), topographic (i.e., elevation, slope, southness), vegetation (i.e., the first three dimensions of a non-metric multid imensional scaling—NMDS), and soil (i.e., pH) parameters were considered as independent variables in a generalised linear model accounting for SOC stocks in the 0–30 cm depth. Pasture SOC was significantly affected by precipitation (positively) and by pH (negatively) but not by topography. However, the higher influence was exerted by vegetation through the first NMDS dimension, which depicted a change in plant species along a thermic-altitudinal gradient. Our research highlighted the remarkable importance of vegetation in regulating SOC stocks in Alpine pastures, confirming the pivotal role of these semi-natural agricultural systems in the global scenario of climate change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Carbon and Nitrogen in Agricultural Systems)
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15 pages, 698 KiB  
Article
Mineralization of Farm Manures and Slurries for Successive Release of Carbon and Nitrogen in Incubated Soils Varying in Moisture Status under Controlled Laboratory Conditions
by Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, Sultana Bilkis, Tahsina Sharmin Hoque, Shihab Uddin, Mohammad Jahiruddin, Mohammad Mazibur Rahman, Mohammad Mahmudur Rahman, Majid Alhomrani, Ahmed Gaber and Mohammad Anwar Hossain
Agriculture 2021, 11(9), 846; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11090846 - 3 Sep 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4185
Abstract
Having up-to-date knowledge on the mineralization of organic materials and release of nutrients is of paramount significance to ensure crops’ nutrient demands, increase nutrient use efficiency and ensure the right fertilizer application at the right time. This study seeks to evaluate the mineralization [...] Read more.
Having up-to-date knowledge on the mineralization of organic materials and release of nutrients is of paramount significance to ensure crops’ nutrient demands, increase nutrient use efficiency and ensure the right fertilizer application at the right time. This study seeks to evaluate the mineralization patterns of various manures viz. cowdung (CD), cowdung slurry (CDSL), trichocompost (TC), vermicompost (VC), poultry manure (PM), poultry manure slurry (PMSL), and mungbean residues (MR). The objective being to establish their efficiency in releasing nutrients under aerobic (field capacity) and anaerobic (waterlogging) conditions. The incubation experiment was designed using a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) that took into account three variables: Manures, soil moisture, and incubation period. The mineralization of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) ranged from 11.2 to 100.1% higher under aerobic conditions rather than anaerobic ones. The first-order kinetic model was used to mineralize both elements. C mineralization was 45.8 to 498.1% higher in an amount from MR under both moisture conditions. For N release, MR and PM exerted maximum amounts in anaerobic and aerobic scenarios, respectively. However, the rate of C and N mineralization was faster in TC compared to other manures in both moisture conditions. Although TC was 1.4 to 37.7% more efficient in terms of rapidity of mineralization, MR and PM performed better concerning the quantity of nutrient release and soil fertility improvement. PM had 22–24% higher N mineralization potential than PMSL while CDSL had 46–56% higher N mineralization potential than CD. C and N mineralization in soil was greater under aerobic conditions compared to what occurred in the anaerobic context. Depending on mineralization potential, the proper type and amount of manure should be added to soil to increase crops’ nutrient use efficiency, which in turn should lead to better crop production. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Carbon and Nitrogen in Agricultural Systems)
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13 pages, 32118 KiB  
Article
Wheat Straw Incorporation Affecting Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Fractions in Chinese Paddy Soil
by Wei Dai, Jun Wang, Kaikai Fang, Luqi Cao, Zhimin Sha and Linkui Cao
Agriculture 2021, 11(8), 803; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11080803 - 23 Aug 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4339
Abstract
Soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N) fractions greatly affect soil health and quality. This study explored the effects of wheat straw incorporation on Chinese rice paddy fields with four treatments: (1) a control (CK), (2) a mineral NPK fertilizer (NPK), (3) the [...] Read more.
Soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N) fractions greatly affect soil health and quality. This study explored the effects of wheat straw incorporation on Chinese rice paddy fields with four treatments: (1) a control (CK), (2) a mineral NPK fertilizer (NPK), (3) the moderate wheat straw (3 t ha−1) plus NPK (MSNPK), and (4) the high wheat straw (6 t ha−1) plus NPK (HSNPK). In total, 0–5, 5–10, 10–20, and 20–30 cm soil depths were sampled from paddy soil in China. Compared with the CK, the HSNPK treatment (p < 0.05) increased the C fraction content (from 13.91 to 53.78%), mainly including SOC, microbial biomass C (MBC), water-soluble organic C (WSOC), and labile organic C (LOC) in the soil profile (0–30 cm), and it also (p < 0.05) increased the soil N fraction content (from 10.70 to 55.31%) such as the soil total N (TN) at 0–10 cm depth, microbial biomass N (MBN) at 0–20 cm depth, total water-soluble N (WSTN) at 0–5 and 20–30 cm depths, and total labile N (LTN) at 0–30 cm depth. The primary components of soil LOC and LTN are MBC and MBN. Various soil C and N fractions positively correlated with each other (p < 0.05). The HSNPK treatment promoted the soil MBC, WSOC, and LOC to SOC ratios, and also promoted MBN, WSTN, and LTN to soil TN ratios at a depth of 0–20 cm. To summarize, the application of HSNPK could maintain and improve rice paddy soil quality, which leads to increased rice grain yields. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Carbon and Nitrogen in Agricultural Systems)
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12 pages, 1807 KiB  
Article
Effect of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles on Nitrous Oxide Emissions in Agricultural Soil
by Ziyi Feng, Yongxiang Yu, Huaiying Yao and Chaorong Ge
Agriculture 2021, 11(8), 730; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11080730 - 31 Jul 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3356
Abstract
Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) are widely used and exposed to the soil environment, but their effect on soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions remains unclear. In this study, a microcosm experiment was conducted to explore the effects of different ZnO NPs [...] Read more.
Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) are widely used and exposed to the soil environment, but their effect on soil nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions remains unclear. In this study, a microcosm experiment was conducted to explore the effects of different ZnO NPs concentrations (0, 100, 500, and 1000 mg kg−1) on N2O emissions and associated functional genes related to N2O amendment with carbon (C) or nitrogen (N) substrates. Partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) was used to explore possible pathways controlling N2O emissions induced by ZnO NPs. In the treatment without C or N substrates, 100 and 500 mg kg−1 ZnO NPs did not affect N2O production, but 1000 mg kg−1 ZnO NPs stimulated N2O production. Interestingly, compared with the soils without ZnO NPs, the total N2O emissions in the presence of different ZnO NPs concentrations increased by 2.36–4.85-, 1.51–1.62-, and 6.28–8.35-fold following C, N and both C & N substrate amendments, respectively. Moreover, ZnO NPs increased the functional genes of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB amoA) and nitrite reductase (nirS) and led to the exhaustion of nitrate but reduced the gene copies of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA amoA). In addition, the redundancy analysis results showed that the AOB amoA and nirS genes were positively correlated with total N2O emissions, and the PLS-PM results showed that ZnO NPs indirectly affected N2O emissions by influencing soil nitrate content, nitrifiers and denitrifiers. Overall, our results showed that ZnO NPs increase N2O emissions by increasing nitrification (AOB amoA) and denitrification (nirS), and we highlight that the exposure of ZnO NPs in agricultural fields probably results in a high risk of N2O emissions when coupled with C and N substrate amendments, contributing to global climate warming. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Carbon and Nitrogen in Agricultural Systems)
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