Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics After Pasture Installation in the Amazon Region

The objective of this paper is to present the soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics in a chronosequence made of a forest and pastures of different ages established in a Oxisol in the Western Brazilian Amazon Basin. The results of soil Carbon and Nitrogen stocks and gases fluxes were discussed. Stable 13C isotopic technique was used to calculate for a determinate age of pasture installation, the proportion of soil C remaining from the forest system and the proportion of soil C introduced by the grasses of the pasture system. The C lost from the original pool under the forest is 1.0 to 1.6 kg C m-2 concentrated during the first 5 years as pasture, and that the C fixed by the pasture (net fixation) is 1.7 to 2.3 kg C m-2 for the total period of 35 years. We agree with the assumption that cattle ranching would never be a profit-making venture as long as only the revenue from the sale of cattle is taken into account. But, now a days, the notions of taxes or refunds for C sequestration and land rehabilitation turn the management of areas that have already been converted to pasture a strategy for C sequestration

Nitrous oxide emissions in agricultural soils: a review.

The greenhouse gases concentration in the atmosphere have significantly increased since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The most important greenhouse gases are CO2, CH4 and N2O, with CH4 and N2O presenting global warming potentials 25 and 298 times higher than CO2, respectively. Most of the N2O emissions take place in soils and are related with agricultural activities. So, this review article aimed at presenting the mechanisms of N2O formation and emission in agricultural soils, as well as gathering and discussing information on how soil management practices may be used to reduce such emissions. The N2O formation in the soil occurs mainly through nitrification and denitrification processes, which are influenced by soil moisture, temperature, oxygen concentration, amount of available organic carbon and nitrogen and soil C/N ratio. Among these factors, those related to soil could be easily altered by management practices. Therefore, understanding the processes of N2O formation in soils and the factors influencing these emissions is fundamental to develop efficient strategies to reduce N2O emissions in agricultural soils

Comparação entre metodologias para cálculo do índice de manejo de carbono do solo em São Luís-MA.

O objetivo desse trabalho foi comparar o IMC calculado a partir de duas metodologias para determinação do teor de C lábil do solo (oxidação do C por K2Cr2O7 em diferentes níveis de acidez e fracionamento físico da matéria orgânica do solo) em solos sob diferentes usos em São Luís-MA

\u3cem\u3eBrachiaria\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3ePanicum\u3c/em\u3e Productivity at Different Sites Within the Brazilian Amazon

Over the last 25 years more than 70 M ha of native vegetation in Brazil have been replaced by pastures for beef production. The substitution of native vegetation on such a large scale with African grasses (mainly of the genera Brachiaria and Panicum) is likely to have an impact on nutrients and organic matter composition, as well as a regional impact on hydrology and water quality

Modelling Grass Productivity in the Brazilian Amazon

The Amazon Basin covers an area of 7 million km2, and the central part is almost entirely located within Brazilian territory. This region has the highest rates of deforestation in the world, and the total area deforested now exceeds 600,000 km2. Cattle pasture represents the largest single use (about 70%) of this once-forested land in most of the Brazilian Basin, with an estimated area of 20 million hectares. Our main objective was to simulate grass productivity in different forest to pasture chronosequences within the Brazilian Amazon

Emissões de N2O de um latossolo após a aplicação de fertilizantes nitrogenados.

O óxido nitroso (N2O) é o principal gás do efeito estufa emitido pelos solos agrícolas e sua emissão é influenciada pelo uso de fertilizantes nitrogenados. Este trabalho avaliou, sob condições controladas, o comportamento das emissões de N2O em amostras de um Latossolo Vermelho, em função da aplicação de duas fontes (nitrato de amônio e ureia) e de três doses (0,11 mg; 0,15 mg e 0,22 mg de N g-1 de solo) de nitrogênio. Os tratamentos foram aplicados na forma de solução, em delineamento inteiramente casualizado, com quatro repetições. Todos os tratamentos aumentaram as emissões de N2O em relação ao controle. O efeito da dose de N sobre as emissões de N2O foi mais pronunciado para a ureia. As emissões foram maiores e ocorreram mais rapidamente nos tratamentos com ureia do que naqueles com nitrato de amônio (maior emissão diária aos 9 e aos 12 dias, respectivamente). As emissões acumuladas ajustaram-se adequadamente a modelos logísticos em todos os tratamentos, indicando que estas curvas representam bem as emissões de N2O induzidas pela aplicação de fertilizantes nitrogenados sob condições controladas. Os resultados podem auxiliar no planejamento de pesquisas similares a serem conduzidas no campo

N2O emissions due to nitrogen fertilizer applications in two regions of sugarcane cultivation in Brazil.

Among the main greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4 and N2O), N2O has the highest global warming potential. N2O emission is mainly connected to agricultural activities, increasing as nitrogen concentrations increase in the soil with nitrogen fertilizer application. We evaluated N2O emissions due to application of increasing doses of ammonium nitrate and urea in two sugarcane fields in the mid-southern region of Brazil: Piracicaba (São Paulo state) and Goianésia (Goiás state). In Piracicaba, N2O emissions exponentially increased with increasing N doses and were similar for urea and ammonium nitrate up to a dose of 107.9 kg ha-1 of N. From there on, emissions nexponentially increased for ammonium nitrate, whereas for urea they stabilized. In Goianésia, N2O emissions nwere lower, although the behavior was similar to that at the Piracicaba site. Ammonium nitrate emissions increased linearly with N dose and urea emissions were adjusted to a quadratic equation with a maximum amount of 113.9 kg N ha-1. This first effort to measure fertilizer induced emissions in Brazilian sugarcane production not only helps to elucidate the behavior of N2O emissions promoted by different N sources frequently used in Brazilian sugarcane fields but also can be useful for future Brazilian ethanol carbon footprint studies

Conversion of Cerrado into agricultural land in the south-western amazon: carbon stocks and soil fertility.

Mudanças de uso da terra e práticas de manejo modificam a dinâmica do C e a fertilidade do solo. Este estudo avaliou as implicações dos sistemas de cultivo (NT e CT) nos estoques de C e de nutrientes e identificou inter-relações entre estes estoques e outros atributos da fertilidade do solo em Latossolo após a mudança do uso da terra no cerrado amazônico. Os estoques de C e de nutrientes (P, K, Ca e Mg) ajustados pela massa equivalente do solo sob cerrado (CE), foram maiores principalmente sob NT. Após a adoção do NT, exceto em 2NT, os estoques de C foram maiores em relação às demais áreas avaliadas. Correlações entre estoques de C e de nutrientes revelaram algumas correlações positivas com Ca e Mg nas áreas sob NT, devido ao uso continuo de calcário, à maior quantidade de resíduos culturais e ao não revolvimento do solo, associado à correlações positivas com CTC, saturação por bases e pH. A correlação positiva (r = 0,91, p < 0,05) entre estoques de C e CTC em CE indica a importante contribuição da MOS na CT de solos tropicais, embora os sítios de troca estejam ocupados principalmente por H + Al. Estoques de P e K mostraram correlações positivas com estoques de C em CE (0,81 e 0,82; respectivamente), indicando a alta relação de P e K com a MOS em ecossistemas naturais. A alta variabilidade espacial associada à aplicação de fertilizantes (P e K) no sulco de plantio pode ter mascarado os resultados dos estoques. A principal fonte destes nutrientes para o solo foi o fertilizante aplicado e não a MOS

The Amazon frontier of land-use change : croplands and consequences for greenhouse gas emissions

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Earth Interactions 14 (2010): 1–24, doi:10.1175/2010EI327.1.The Brazilian Amazon is one of the most rapidly developing agricultural frontiers in the world. The authors assess changes in cropland area and the intensification of cropping in the Brazilian agricultural frontier state of Mato Grosso using remote sensing and develop a greenhouse gas emissions budget. The most common type of intensification in this region is a shift from single- to double-cropping patterns and associated changes in management, including increased fertilization. Using the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor, the authors created a green-leaf phenology for 2001–06 that was temporally smoothed with a wavelet filter. The wavelet-smoothed green-leaf phenology was analyzed to detect cropland areas and their cropping patterns. The authors document cropland extensification and double-cropping intensification validated with field data with 85% accuracy for detecting croplands and 64% and 89% accuracy for detecting single- and double-cropping patterns, respectively. The results show that croplands more than doubled from 2001 to 2006 to cover about 100 000 km2 and that new double-cropping intensification occurred on over 20% of croplands. Variations are seen in the annual rates of extensification and double-cropping intensification. Greenhouse gas emissions are estimated for the period 2001–06 due to conversion of natural vegetation and pastures to row-crop agriculture in Mato Grosso averaged 179 Tg CO2-e yr−1, over half the typical fossil fuel emissions for the country in recent years.This work was supported by the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (G. L. Galford) and Large-Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (Grant NNG06GE20A) and the Environmental Change Initiative at Brown University