When nitrogen leaves the root zone, it can affect the quality of groundwater and surface water. The key to reducing this is practising efficient on-farm management of nitrogen, so that as much of the available nitrogen as possible is used to grow crops and livestock and maintain soil health. The range of management options available to a producer varies depending on the farm's characteristics.
These can be identified through the preparation of a nutrient management plan. The following sections describe some general approaches and specific ways to reduce the movement of nitrate to groundwater or the movement of ammonia to surface water. Figure 2. Buffer strips reduce nutrient movement by consuming excess nutrients before they flow into surface water and enhancing groundwater denitrification.
NMAN includes a feature called the Nitrogen Index N-Index , which can help a producer evaluate the potential for nitrate leaching with a planned crop production practice. N-MAN uses soil profile characteristics to assess the potential for nitrate leaching from the field.
The N-Index can evaluate the effect of manure type as well as the timing and rate of manure application on leaching. Crop nutrient balances calculated by NMAN also help determine the efficiency of the nitrogen applied to the field.
For more information about nitrogen management, see the following Best Management Practices publications:. The key for managing nitrogen sources, including livestock manure and crop nutrients, is being as efficient as possible. An important part of this process is to ensure that you use farm management practices that account for the capacity of soils and the crops being grown to remove nitrogen. This will help ensure the sustainability and future uses of Ontario's water resources.
Last Modified:. Accessing this message means you do not have a JavaScript enabled browser. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. Science News. Story Source: Materials provided by Brown University.
Journal Reference : M. Hastings, J. Jarvis, and E. Science , ; : DOI: ScienceDaily, 5 June Brown University. There are many ways that farmers can reduce nutrient losses from their operations 1 , including, but not limited to 2 :. Skip to main content. Nutrient Pollution. Contact Us. The Sources and Solutions: Agriculture.
Climate change is expected to further augment these increases. A further enhancement in the future impact of these reactive nitrogen emissions is expected due to future reductions in sulfate and NOX emissions through environmental legislation.
For example, the global burden of accumulation mode nitrate aerosols in is predicted to be 2. Despite its importance and societal relevance the representation of emissions of reactive nitrogen from agricultural processes has been treated in such a rudimentary manner in Earth System Models that the resulting impacts are highly uncertain. Specifically: 1 ammonia emissions from agriculture are generally crudely estimated with no explicit climate dependence or even seasonal variation; 2 emissions of NOX and N2O from agriculture are generally not considered or are considered very simplistically; 3 the emissions and deposition of reactive nitrogen are treated separately and thus are not treated as a coupled process; and 4 explicit organic and synthetic fertilizer application and manure generation are not explicitly tied to the biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen and its impact on the carbon cycle..
The overall question we seek to answer through the proposed research is: What are the climate and air-quality impacts of agricultural practices on the nitrogen cycle and how will these change with climate, with changes in agricultural practices and with increases in food demand?
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