Modelling the risk of nitrate leaching from two soils amended with five different biosolids Modelagem do risco de lixiviação de nitrato em dois solos tratados com cinco diferentes biossólidos

High N concentrations in biosolids are one of the strongest reasons for their agricultural use. However, it is essential to understand the fate of N in soils treated with biosolids for both plant nutrition and managing the environmental risk of NO3--N leaching. This work aimed at evaluating the risk of NO3--N leaching from a Spodosol and an Oxisol, each one treated with 0.5-8.0 dry Mg ha-1 of fresh tertiary sewage sludge, composted biosolids, limed biosolids, heat-dried biosolids and solar-irradiated biosolids. Results indicated that under similar application rates NO3--N accumulated up to three times more in the 20 cm topsoil of the Oxisol than the Spodosol. However, a higher water content held at field capacity in the Oxisol compensated for the greater nitrate concentrations. A 20 % NO3--N loss from the root zone in the amended Oxisol could be expected. Depending on the biosolids type, 42 to 76 % of the NO3--N accumulated in the Spodosol could be expected to leach down from the amended 20 cm topsoil. NO3--N expected to leach from the Spodosol ranged from 0.8 (composted sludge) to 3.5 times (limed sludge) the amounts leaching from the Oxisol treated alike. Nevertheless, the risk of NO3--N groundwater contamination as a result of a single biosolids land application at 0.5-8.0 dry Mg ha-1 could be considered low.<br>Concentrações altas de nitrogênio (N) em biossólidos são uma das maiores razões para a utilização agronômica deles. Entretanto, é essencial entender o destino do N em solos tratados com biossólidos, tanto por motivos de nutrição vegetal quanto para manejar o risco ambiental representado pela lixiviação de nitrato. Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar o risco de lixiviação de nitrato em um Espodossolo e em um Latossolo, cada um tratado com doses de 0,5 a 8,0 Mg ha-1 de biossólido fresco, biossólido compostado, biossólido caleado, biossólido seco a calor e biossólido irradiado por sol. Os resultados mostraram que, para doses iguais de aplicação, o nitrato acumulou-se até três vezes mais na camada superficial de 20 cm do Latossolo do que do Espodossolo. Entretanto, a maior capacidade de campo do Latossolo compensou as maiores concentrações de nitrato e espera-se a lixiviação de 20 % do nitrato acumulado na camada superficial desse solo. Dependendo do tipo de biossólido, entre 42 e 76 % do nitrato acumulado no Espodossolo serão lixiviados. A expectativa de lixiviação de nitrato no Espodossolo variou de 0,8 (biossólido compostado) a 3,5 vezes (biossólido caleado) em relação ao Latossolo tratado de maneira similar. Entretanto, o risco de contaminação de aqüíferos por lixiviação de nitrato nos solos tratados com uma dose única de biossólidos entre 0,5 e 8,0 Mg ha-1 foi considerado baixo

Repercussion of anthropogenic landscape changes on pedodiversity and preservation of the pedological heritage

Over a period of time people have lived in and with their surrounding landscapes and for several thousand years transformed the soilscapes and the vegetation into cultural landscape types important for their economy and to meet their needs (Richter 2007, Ellis 2011, Hjelle 2012). The sustainable provision of goods and services depends critically on managing soils without damaging the natural soilscapes and the related natural resources. To support the transition towards sustainable development, science needs to understand how land-use change affects the environment and how this, in turn, feeds back into human livelihood strategies or infl uences the vulnerability of the environment (Rounsevell et al. 2012a). Interactions between decision-making, governance structures, production and consumption, technology, ecosystem services and global environmental change infl uence human activities at the local and regional scale, and are infl uenced by and feed back to the global scale, thereby shaping trajectories of human–environment interaction in land systems (Lambin and Meyfroidt 2011)