Nitrogen and Carbon Cycle in Agriculture

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 April 2023) | Viewed by 6385

Special Issue Editors

Department of Agricultural, Food and Forest Sciences, University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Interests: conservation agriculture; N use efficiency; N2 fixation; AM symbiosis; crop productivity; cereals; pulses
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Forestali, University Palermo, Viale Sci, I-90128 Palermo, Italy
Interests: soil fertility; indicators of soil quality; soil carbon dynamics; soil microorganisms; greenhouse gas emissions from soil and wastewater treatment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dipartimento di Agraria, University of Reggio Calabria, 89124 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Interests: agricultural systems; nitrogen; field crops

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Agriculture strongly impacts the global carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles through land-use change and the agronomic management. Unlike natural ecosystems, where the C and N cycles are generally closely coupled, in the agricultural systems farmers profoundly alter the stoichiometric relations between C and N fluxes through practices, such as soil cultivation, N fertilization, use of cover crops or N-fixing crops, and so on. This alteration determines a potential for depletion or accumulation of these two elements in agricultural soils. Thus, for example, soil processes, such as nitrate leaching or emissions of N2O via denitrification would tend to restore stoichiometry by releasing the N in excess. Evidently, such processes can have deleterious, far-reaching consequences for the environment and human health. In this regard, agricultural soils are one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, accounting for about 10–12% of total anthropogenic GHG.

Consequently, there is currently a great interest in developing agronomic practices to minimize C and N losses in order to mitigate their associated negative environmental impacts (e.g., acidification, eutrophication, and GHG emissions). An increased retention of C and N in soil could be achieved through the adoption of integrated management strategies that allow for a recoupling of C and N cycles.

This justifies the pressing urgency to expand understanding of the mechanisms and processes that regulate C and N fluxes in the agricultural systems. This knowledge is, in fact, crucial to develop agronomic practices and design management strategies that increase the efficiency of C and N cycling, which ultimately enhances the sustainability and resilience of the farming systems.

We, therefore, invite scholars to submit manuscripts (e.g., research articles, reviews, meta-analyses) that address the various aspects of C and N cycling in agriculture—from molecular to agro-ecosystem/regional/global scales. Contributions may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • C and N turnover in agricultural soils;
  • Assessing and mitigating GHG emissions from agriculture;
  • Improving C sequestration in agricultural soils;
  • Improving N-use efficiency in crops;
  • Managing C and N cycling to enhance ecosystem services from agriculture;
  • Modeling C and N dynamics in the soil-plant-atmosphere system.

Dr. Paolo Ruisi
Dr. Vito Armando Laudicina
Dr. Giuseppe Badagliacca
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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 monthly 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

  • C and N pools in agricultural soils
  • microbial processes in agricultural soils
  • soil organic matter turnover
  • N mineralization/immobilization
  • C:N ratio
  • C sequestration
  • GHG emissions
  • global warming
  • N-use efficiency
  • soil management
  • conservation agriculture
  • soil degradation
  • denitrification
  • ammonia volatilization
  • N leaching
  • biological N2 fixation

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 2864 KiB  
Communication
Effect of Solid Digestate Amendment on the Dynamics of N Soluble Forms in Two Contrasting Soil Profiles under Mediterranean Environment
by Giuseppe Badagliacca, Emilio Lo Presti, Antonio Gelsomino and Michele Monti
Agriculture 2023, 13(7), 1311; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13071311 - 27 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 678
Abstract
Use of solid agricultural digestate as a substitute for chemical fertilizers in Mediterranean cropping systems can be a valuable approach to improving soil fertility. However, it is important to accurately assess its mineralisation dynamics in order to avoid uncontrolled nutrient releases in agroecosystems. [...] Read more.
Use of solid agricultural digestate as a substitute for chemical fertilizers in Mediterranean cropping systems can be a valuable approach to improving soil fertility. However, it is important to accurately assess its mineralisation dynamics in order to avoid uncontrolled nutrient releases in agroecosystems. With this aim, a field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of solid digestate application on total soil nitrogen (TSN), extractable organic N (EON) and mineral N forms (NH4+-N and NO3-N) in two Mediterranean soil profiles (clay and sandy-loam) over one year. The solid digestate increased TSN and EON concentrations in the upper soil layer (0–20 cm) of both soils, more in the clay soil, with a decreasing effect in the lower soil layers (20–40 and 40–60 cm). The amendment increased NH4+-N concentrations, with a greater and longer-lasting effect in the clay soil, especially in the first two soil layers (0–20 and 20–40 cm), while in the lowest, it was limited at the first sampling epoch. The NO3-N copied the NH4+-N trends in both soils, with a greater effect on the 0–20 cm soil layer at all sampling epochs. The present study suggests that solid digestate, applied at a dose of 30 Mg ha−1, can be a useful alternative to mineral N fertilisers for clay and sandy-loam soils in Mediterranean orchards. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nitrogen and Carbon Cycle in Agriculture)
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14 pages, 2418 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of the Use of a Material with Struvite from a Wastewater Treatment Plant as N Fertilizer in Acid and Basic Agricultural Soils
by Isabel S. de Soto, Miguel Itarte, Iñigo Virto, Andrea López, Jairo Gómez and Alberto Enrique
Agriculture 2023, 13(5), 999; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13050999 - 30 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1456
Abstract
Struvite (MgNH4PO4 ∙ 6H2O) has been widely studied as an emerging recycled phosphorous fertilizer despite its low solubility. However, there are few studies on the use of this mineral as an N fertilizer. This article evaluates the use [...] Read more.
Struvite (MgNH4PO4 ∙ 6H2O) has been widely studied as an emerging recycled phosphorous fertilizer despite its low solubility. However, there are few studies on the use of this mineral as an N fertilizer. This article evaluates the use of two powder struvite-containing materials from wastewater treatment as an N fertilizer in agricultural soils. A 9-week soil incubation experiment was conducted to compare the effectiveness of this mineral as an N fertilizer in two soils with different pH values (8.2 and 6.7), using two different doses and a control soil. The use of these materials has a positive effect on soil fertility, especially in acidic soils where struvite seems to be more soluble. Thus, struvite can be a potential N fertilizer for agricultural soils and can promote circular economy opportunities for the wastewater industry, especially in acid soils (concentrations of mineral N between 453–339 mg/kg were obtained in the mixtures with acid soil, and values between 408–212 mg/kg in the mixtures with the basic soil after 6 weeks of soil incubation). However, associated with this process, an increase in soil salt content was observed (EC values reaching 3.9 dS/cm in mixtures with the acid soil and 2.8 dS/cm in the mixtures with the basic soil after nine weeks of soil incubation). Therefore, this parameter should be controlled in the case of continuous applications of the amendments, especially in conditions of poor drainage and/or non-percolating water regime, since it can be a limiting factor in crop development. These processes should be studied in detail in the future considering that the N soil cycle has a significant impact on soil chemistry and fertility and on the soil microbiological community. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nitrogen and Carbon Cycle in Agriculture)
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9 pages, 767 KiB  
Article
Pathways and Drivers of Gross N Transformation in Different Soil Types under Long-Term Chemical Fertilizer Treatments
by Guihua Li, Weishui Yu, Fanhua Meng, Jianfeng Zhang and Changai Lu
Agriculture 2023, 13(2), 300; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13020300 - 26 Jan 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1157
Abstract
Microbial-mediated nitrogen (N) dynamics is not only a key process for crop productivity, but also a driver for N losses. Therefore, a better understanding of N dynamics and controlling factors in different soil types is needed to better manage N fertilization in crop [...] Read more.
Microbial-mediated nitrogen (N) dynamics is not only a key process for crop productivity, but also a driver for N losses. Therefore, a better understanding of N dynamics and controlling factors in different soil types is needed to better manage N fertilization in crop fields. To achieve this, a 15N tracing approach was used to quantify simultaneously occurring N transformation rates in four agricultural trials (>20 years chemical fertilizer application) with contrasting climatic and edaphic types (three upland soils and one paddy soil). The results showed that recalcitrant soil organic carbon (SOC) mineralization was the main source of NH4+ at all the sites, with rates ranging from 0.037 in fluvo-aquic soil to 3.096 mg kg−1 day−1 in paddy red soil. Autotrophic nitrification (ONH4) was the predominant NO3 production mechanism in the black and fluvo-aquic soils, whereas it was negligible in the upland and paddy red soils. Nitrification capacity, as an indicator of nitrate leaching risk, was in the order: upland red soil (1%) < paddy red soil (8%) < black soil (235%) < fluvo-aquic soil (485%), implying a high nitrate leaching risk in the last two soils. However, high microbial immobilization (41%) and abiotic adsorption (6%) decreased NO3 leaching in black soil. The partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) showed that SOC, temperature and pH were the main factors controlling nitrate immobilization, N mineralization and nitrification. In summary, even under similar chemical fertilization conditions, N transformation dynamics are expected to differ with respect to soil type. Therefore, N management strategies should be adjusted to soil type to control N losses and increase crop yield. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nitrogen and Carbon Cycle in Agriculture)
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26 pages, 3776 KiB  
Article
Calibration Spiking of MIR-DRIFTS Soil Spectra for Carbon Predictions Using PLSR Extensions and Log-Ratio Transformations
by Wiktor R. Żelazny  and Tomáš Šimon 
Agriculture 2022, 12(5), 682; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12050682 - 11 May 2022
Viewed by 1975
Abstract
There is a need to minimize the usage of traditional laboratory reference methods in favor of spectroscopy for routine soil carbon monitoring, with potential cost savings existing especially for labile pools. Mid-infrared spectroscopy has been associated with accurate soil carbon predictions, but the [...] Read more.
There is a need to minimize the usage of traditional laboratory reference methods in favor of spectroscopy for routine soil carbon monitoring, with potential cost savings existing especially for labile pools. Mid-infrared spectroscopy has been associated with accurate soil carbon predictions, but the method has not been researched extensively in connection to C lability. More studies are also needed on reducing the numbers of samples and on how to account for the compositional nature of C pools. This study compares performance of two classes of partial least squares regression models to predict soil carbon in a global (models trained to data from a spectral library), local (models trained to data from a target area), and calibration-spiking (spectral library augmented with target-area spectra) scheme. Topsoil samples were+ scanned with a Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer, total and hot-water extractable carbon determined, and isometric log-ratio coordinates derived from the latter measurements. The best RMSEP was estimated as 0.38 and 0.23 percentage points TC for the district and field scale, respectively—values sufficiently low to make only qualitative predictions according to the RPD and RPIQ criteria. Models estimating soil carbon lability performed unsatisfactorily, presumably due to low labile pool concentration. Traditional weighing of spiking samples by including multiple copies thereof in training data yielded better results than canonical partial least squares regression modeling with embedded weighing. Although local modeling was associated with the most accurate predictions, calibration spiking addressed better the trade-off between data acquisition costs and model quality. Calibration spiking with compositional data analysis is, therefore, recommended for routine monitoring. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nitrogen and Carbon Cycle in Agriculture)
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