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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Soil Processes
Volume 12 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2024.1445212
This article is part of the Research Topic Nitrate from Field to Stream: Characterization and Mitigation View all 3 articles
Assessing the potential of diverse pastures for reducing nitrogen leaching
Provisionally accepted- 1 Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, Lincoln, New Zealand
- 2 Waikato Regional Council, Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand
Mitigation practices for nitrogen leaching losses from livestock agriculture are needed to protect freshwater quality and increase the efficiency of agricultural production. Within New Zealand, the most common pasture type is a two-species mix of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and white clover (Trifolium repens). Ecological theory suggests that increasing species and functional diversity improves ecosystem function, including nitrogen (N) retention. Use of more diverse pasture types, including a mix of pasture grasses, legumes and other forbs, particularly plantain (Plantago lanceolata), with functional traits, including winter activity, deep-rooting, N fixation, and biological inhibition of nitrification in the soil, is a potential mitigation practice that requires further verification with long-term field measurements. Here we utilize a network of large lysimeters to make field-based measurements of N leaching from 5-8 species diverse pasture, including plantain, under a range of soil, climate and management conditions, for comparison with losses from traditional ryegrass-clover pasture. Over three years of measurements, leaching from fully established diverse pasture was 2-80 kg N ha -1 y -1 . No differences were observed in dry matter production or N leaching of diverse pasture compared to ryegrass-clover lysimeters. Large losses, up to 120 kg N ha -1 , were observed during periods when pasture was not fully established, including cultivation and sowing of new pasture, depending on season. Timing of management activities could be optimized to minimize these losses. These data provide critical assessment of diverse pasture as a mitigation approach for reducing N losses. Further work on diverse pastures should include higher diversity mixes as well as consideration of animal mediated effects of diverse pasture diets on N inputs.
Keywords: Nitrogen leaching, soil hydrology, mitigation, grassland, grazing, plant diversity, Plantago lanceolata
Received: 06 Jun 2024; Accepted: 04 Sep 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Graham, Pronger, Laubach, Hunt, Rogers, Carrick, Whitehead, Mcleod, Mitchell and Mudge. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Scott L. Graham, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, Lincoln, New Zealand
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