Sustainable Agriculture Reviews: Volume 18

321 Pages·2015·8.01 MB·English

by  Eric Lichtfouse (eds.)

Sustainable Agriculture Reviews 18
Eric Lichtfouse E ditor
Sustainable
Agriculture
Reviews
Volume 18
Sustainable Agriculture Reviews
Volume 18
Series editor
Eric Lichtfouse
Other Publications by Dr. Eric Lichtfouse
Books
Scientifi c Writing for Impact Factor Journals
Nova Publishers 2013
Sustainable Agriculture
Springer 2009
Sustainable Agriculture Volume 2
Springer 2011
Environmental Chemistry. Green Chemistry and Pollutants in Ecosystems
Springer 2005
Rédiger pour être publié ! Conseils pratiques pour les scientifi ques
Springer 2012, 2e édition.
Journals and Series
Agronomy for Sustainable Development
www.springer.com/journal/13593
Sustainable Agriculture Reviews
www.springer.com/series/8380
Environmental Chemistry Letters
www.springer.com/journal/10311
Environmental Chemistry for a Sustainable World
www.springer.com/series/11480
Blog
Agronomy blog
http://www1.montpellier.inra.fr/agronomy-blog
Magazine
Publier La Science
http://www6.inra.fr/caps-publierlascience
More information about this series at h ttp://www.springer.com/series/8380
Eric Lichtfouse
Editor
Sustainable Agriculture
Reviews
Volume 18
Editor
Eric Lichtfouse
INRA, UMR1347 Agroécologie
Dijon , France
ISSN 2210-4410 ISSN 2210-4429 (electronic)
Sustainable Agriculture Reviews
ISBN 978-3-319-21628-7 ISBN 978-3-319-21629-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-21629-4
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
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Contents
1 Nitrogen Transformations in Soils,
Agricultural Plants and the Atmosphere .............................................. 1
Beata Kułek
2 Adoption, Diffusion, and Scaling of Agricultural
Technologies in Developing Countries .................................................. 45
Jonathan S. Colton
3 Agricultural Bioenergy Production ....................................................... 77
Katrin Heinsoo , Indrek Melts , and Tiiu Kull
4 Agrobiodiversity for Biological Pest
Control in Sub-Saharan Africa .............................................................. 107
Duna Madu Mailafi ya
5 Factors Influencing Water Dynamics in Agriculture ........................... 145
Karuppan Sakadevan and Minh-Long Nguyen
6 Greenhouse Cooling Systems and Models for Arid Climate ............... 181
Erna du Plessis , Tilahun Workneh , and Mark Laing
7 Direct Seeded Rice in South Asia ........................................................... 217
Rajan Bhatt and Surinder S. Kukal
8 Zinc Application to Rice Genotypes Under Saline Conditions ........... 253
Muhammad Jan , Muhammad Anwar-ul-Haq , Javaid Akhtar ,
and Ejaz Ahmad Waraich
9 Organic Farming of Potato in Iran ....................................................... 273
Seyed Alireza Ghadimi , Hossien Shabanali Fami , Ali Asadi ,
Samire saymohammadi , and Fateme Porghasem
v
vi Contents
10 Wheat Root Selections for Sustainable Production ............................. 295
Amir Raza , Muhammad Imtiaz , and Wisal Mohammad
Index ................................................................................................................. 317
Chapter 1
Nitrogen Transformations in Soils,
Agricultural Plants and the Atmosphere
Beata Kułek
Contents
1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 3
1.2 Processes Associated with the Nitrogen Cycle Occurring in Soils and Plants ............ 5
1.2.1 Ammonification ................................................................................................ 6
1.2.2 Nitrification ....................................................................................................... 6
1.2.3 Nitrate Leaching ............................................................................................... 6
1.2.4 Assimilation ...................................................................................................... 7
1.2.5 Immobilization ................................................................................................. 7
1.2.6 Denitrification ................................................................................................... 7
1.2.7 Mineralization of Organic Nitrogen ................................................................. 9
1.3 Processes Occurring in the Atmosphere Related with the Nitrogen Cycle .................. 9
1.3.1 Concerning Ammonia ....................................................................................... 9
1.3.1.1 A Chemical Transformation............................................................... 9
1.3.1.2 Dry and Wet Deposition ..................................................................... 10
1.3.1.3 Transport ............................................................................................ 10
1.3.2 The Formation of Nitrogen Oxides .................................................................. 10
1.3.3 The Formation of Nitrous Oxide ...................................................................... 12
1.4 Methods of Determination of Different Nitrogen Forms in Soils and Plants .............. 12
1.4.1 Ammonium Nitrogen ........................................................................................ 13
1.4.2 Nitrate Nitrogen ................................................................................................ 13
1.4.3 Nitrite Nitrogen ................................................................................................ 14
1.4.4 Organic Nitrogen .............................................................................................. 14
1.4.5 Total Nitrogen ................................................................................................... 15
1.5 Methods of Determination of Gases Concentrations in the Air ................................... 15
1.5.1 Ammonia .......................................................................................................... 15
1.5.2 Nitrous Oxide ................................................................................................... 19
1.5.3 Nitrogen Oxides ................................................................................................ 20
1.6 A Nitrogen Cycle in All Environment .......................................................................... 20
1.7 Alternative Perspectives for the Monitoring of Gases in the Air and Indications
for the Agricultural Production to Protect the Environment ........................................ 20
B. Kułek (*)
Institute for Agricultural and Forest Environment, Polish Academy of Sciences,
Bukowska 19, 60-809 Poznań, Poland
e-mail: [email protected]
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 1
E. Lichtfouse (ed.), Sustainable Agriculture Reviews, Sustainable
Agriculture Reviews 18, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-21629-4_1
2 B. Kułek
1.8 A Comparison of Three Spectrophotometric Methods for Determining
of Various Nitrogen Forms in Soils, Plants and in the Atmosphere ............................. 22
1.8.1 Preparation of the Standardization Curve for Each Method............................. 23
1.8.2 Evaluation of Spectrophotometric Methods ..................................................... 24
1.9 A New Application of the ISO 7150-1 (1984) Method to Assay the Ammonium
Nitrogen Concentrations in Soils and Plants and to Detect Trace Amounts
of Ammonia in the Atmosphere with Use of Passive Samplers ................................... 28
1.9.1 Characteristics of Sample Collection Sites ....................................................... 28
1.9.2 Collection of Soil, Plant and Atmospheric Samples ......................................... 28
1.9.3 Preparation of Soil Extracts for the Determination of N-NH+
4
Concentrations .................................................................................................. 29
1.9.4 Preparation of Plant Extracts for the Determination of N-NH+
4
Concentrations .................................................................................................. 29
1.9.5 Description of Samplers used for Capturing Ammonia
from the Atmosphere ........................................................................................ 29
1.9.6 A Way of Preparing Atmospheric Samples to Assay
Ammonia in the Air .......................................................................................... 30
1.9.7 Calculations of Ammonium Nitrogen Concentrations in Soils and Plants
and Ammonia Amounts – in the Air ................................................................. 30
1.9.8 A Method of Performing Statistical Analysis of Obtained Data ...................... 32
1.10 Results of Environmental Analyzes ............................................................................. 32
1.11 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 34
Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................... 35
References ............................................................................................................................... 35
Abstract In dynamically developing countries plant production is on the increase
together with the use of fertilizers and increasing air pollution with ammonia and
nitrogen oxides (NO ) and nitrous oxide (N O) is observed. When these forms of
x 2
nitrogen occur at very high concentrations, they may be harmful to the environment
(e.g. to cause the acidification of soils, an eutrophication, global warming, toxicity
to plants, animals and for people). The monitoring of the concentrations of gases
released into the atmosphere is important in order to reduce their amounts. However,
this does not depend only on a human activity, but also on the intensity of the pro-
cesses occurring in nature. Hence, in this paper the following issues are discussed:
(1) the processes associated with the nitrogen cycle, occurring in soils, plants and
the atmosphere, (2) the factors affecting them, (3) methods of the analysis of con-
centrations of these gases in the atmosphere and ammonium, nitrate, nitrite, organic
and total nitrogen – in plants and soils. Both old, but commonly used methods and
modern ones were presented, requiring specialized and expensive equipment.
Alternative methods are suggested that are less expensive and more convenient in
field studies, as well as enabling the monitoring of environmental pollution in the
long term and at many locations simultaneously. The possibility of using a new
method for the determination of trace amounts of ammonia in the air and ammo-
nium nitrogen in plants and soils is pointed out. The review presents the most
important factors affecting variable gas concentrations in the atmosphere, which, in
addition to the use of fertilizers, may also include crop species, animal husbandry
1 Nitrogen Transformations in Soils, Agricultural Plants and the Atmosphere 3
and meteorological conditions. Three spectrophotometric methods, the Nessler
method, the indophenol method and the ISO 7150 method are compared to show
that the ISO method is the best to analyse N concentrations in soils and plants.
Passive samplers are used to measure ammonia in the atmosphere.
Keywords Nitrogen cycle in soils, plants and the atmosphere • Methods of the
determination of different nitrogen forms • Ammonia • Nitrogen oxides • Nitrous
oxide • Ammonium, nitrate, nitrite, organic and total nitrogen
1.1 Introduction
The nitrogen cycle in nature is universal. It occurs naturally throughout the agricul-
tural environment from the soil through plants to the atmosphere. Followed by a
continuous exchange of the necessary nutrients for a life. The primary source of
nitrogen in the agriculture are organic and mineral fertilizers used to obtain the great-
est yields. Most farmers fertilize soil with manure and urea. It turns out that they are
the biggest source of ammonia, as the surfactant used causes a rapid volatilization of
this gas into the atmosphere, especially at high temperatures. From 55 % (Duxbury
1994) to more than 95 % (Isermann 1994) of ammonia is released into the atmo-
sphere each year from agriculture. This release of nitrogen is responsible for an enor-
mous loss of nutrients and energy from agricultural systems (Lemon and Van Houtte
1980; Harper et al. 1983). In Europe 83 % of ammonia emissions originated from
manure – it is approx. 7.6 Mt NH-N/year (Asman 1992). Most studies concern
3
ammonia emissions from animal waste (the biggest source of this gas) – for example
from swine barns and liquid and livestock manure (Burton and Beauchamp 1986;
Svensson 1994). These direct releases of the gas into the air may also result from the
spread of slurry (Kallinger and Niessner 1999). In this case, nitrogen which is not
fully taken up by plants is lost. Nitrogen is also extracted from urea, which is con-
verted to CO and NH by urease in the faeces (Voorburg and Kroodsma 1992). The
2 3
volatilization of ammonia to the atmosphere depends on the type of animals and their
nutrition (Husted et al. 1991). Few studies were found on the release of ammonia
from mineral fertilizers and only some (e.g. from ammonium nitrate). As a result of
reactions occurring in nature, other gases are formed – such as nitrogen oxides. In
high quantities, they may be harmful to living organisms and the environment. For
example, nitrogen dioxide can cause asthma, respiratory disorders in humans, bron-
chitis and cancer, and may also contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer in the
environment and smog formation. Ammonia, occurring at very high concentrations
in the air, can cause eutrophication of terrestrial ecosystems, the soil acidification and
a loss of biodiversity (Bouwman et al. 2002; Stevens et al. 2004; Bergström and
Jansson 2006), may be toxic to plants, such as oats (Hauk et al. 1990), and to humans,
resulting in the production of toxic secondary particulate matter – PM, as NO
2