Award details

Nutrient and organic matter cycling as influenced by land management and anthropogenic inputs for sustainable farming systems

Reference	BBS/E/C/00031473
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr P R Poulton
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Rothamsted Research
Department	Rothamsted Research Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	194,052
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/1997
End date	31/03/1999
Duration	24 months

Abstract

Maintaining soil fertility is of vital importance if the productive capability of agricultural land is to be sustained. There are many factors which impact upon the complex biological, chemical and physical processes which govern soil fertility. Changes in fertility caused by nutrient status, by declining levels of organic matter or by acidification may take many years to appear. These properties can, in turn, be affected by external influences such as changes in land management or atmospheric pollution. In this project the long- term experiments at Rothamsted and Woburn will be used to investigate how nutrient and organic matter cycling is influenced by a wide range of land management practices and by anthropogenic inputs. 2 The implications for the sustainability of different farming systems will be examined. The potential impact of inappropriate or changing management practices on the wider environment will also be considered. The work will entail the measurement of crop yields and the regular sampling and subsequent analysis of crops and soils. Inputs and crop offtakes will be related to the soil nutrient status. Current levels of available P and K, C, N and pH in soil will be related to long-term trends. The project will provide valuable information for farmers, advisers, scientists (especially those seeking to model long-term change) and policy makers. In recent years the Exhaustion Land experiment has been used to see how quickly soils which have been depleted in plant available P can be improved so that yields are not limited by lack of P. Data from the last 10 years will be collated and prepared for publication. Data from a Ley- Arable experiment at Woburn will also be prepared for publication. In this experiment the effect of different rotations on the supply to subsequent cereal crops of N mineralized from soil organic nitrogen is measured. The extent by which fertilizer N applied in spring should be modified to take account of the soil N supply will be assessed. Continue to assess the importance of soluble organic nitrogen (SON) in nitrogen losses and mineralisation. 2. Use the 13C signature from the newly-introduced maize on Broadbalk to better understand carbon cycling on this experiment. 3. Collate and publish data obtained so far on SON. 4. Present a paper at a workshop in Japan on the value to crops of nitrogen from soil organic matter.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Agri-food (AF)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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