Deep soils modify environmental consequences of increased nitrogen fertilizer use in intensifying Amazon agriculture.

ABSTRACT: Agricultural intensification offers potential to grow more food while reducing the conversion of native ecosystems to croplands. However, intensification also risks environmental degradation through emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N₂O) and nitrate leaching to ground and surface waters. Intensively-managed croplands and nitrogen (N) fertilizer use are expanding rapidly in tropical regions. We quantified fertilizer responses of maize yield, N₂O emissions, and N leaching in an Amazon soybean-maize double-cropping system on deep, highly-weathered soils in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Application of N fertilizer above 80 kg N ha^-1 yr^-1 increased maize yield and N₂O emissions only slightly. Unlike experiences in temperate regions, lea

SUBMITTER: Jankowski K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6128839 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature