Can the presence of plantain (Plantago lanceolataL.) improve nitrogen cycling of dairy grassland systems on peat soils?

Abstract

Reactive nitrogen (N) losses, and in particular nitrous oxide losses, from dairy grasslands on peat soils are generally high as a result of relative high soil organic matter contents, potential N mineralisation rates and shallow groundwater levels. Effects of the inclusion of the temperate forage species plantain (Plantago lanceolata L.) (PL), which produces secondary compounds with biological nitrification inhibition capacity, on the fate of soil mineral N were studied in a combined mesocosm and field experiment. The experiments comprised four treatments differing in intentional herbage share of plantain versus perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) (100%PL, 66%PL, 33%PL and 0%PL). Potential nitrification in the mesocosm experiment was significantly lower at 100%PL versus 0%PL (p = 0.018), but soil nitrate concentrations were not. Nitrous oxide fluxes reduced by 39% (p = 0.021) in the presence of plantain in the field experiment, without an obvious link to the quantity of plantain. N use efficiency of plantain tended to increase with the quantity of plantain in the sward in the mesocosm experiment (p = 0.098), but not in the field experiment. Our results suggest that the presence of plantain can affect the fate of soil mineral N of dairy grasslands on peat soils. ARTICLE HISTORY

Effects of functional traits of perennial ryegrass cultivars on forage quality in mixtures and pure stands

“…(2016), grass–forbs mixtures may also have additional benefits for dairy cows. Biologically active plant metabolites present in plantain affect urinary N excretion of ruminants and thereby potentially reduce the nitrification and N losses on pastures (Judson et al ., 2018; Pjilman et al ., 2019; Simon et al ., 2019).…”

“…According to Soder et al (2006) and Pembleton et al (2016), grass-forbs mixtures may also have additional benefits for dairy cows. Biologically active plant metabolites present in plantain affect urinary N excretion of ruminants and thereby potentially reduce the nitrification and N losses on pastures (Judson et al, 2018;Pjilman et al, 2019;Simon et al, 2019). In production systems based on grass-white clover swards, the clover share of the herbage is generally low in spring and this can result in undesirable seasonal variability in forage quality (Davidson and Robson, 1986).…”

Nanofertilizers: A Cutting-Edge Approach to Increase Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Grasslands

“…Many agricultural management practices such as split N application, N localization, precision farming, use of liquid formulations, foliar sprays, and liming applications have been proposed to improve NUE (Sharma and Bali, 2018;Egan et al, 2019) in annual crops such as potato (Souza et al, 2020) and mix croplivestock systems (Ershadia et al, 2020). In the case of grasslands, several management options have been studied including the traditional 4R approach for the use of fertilizer application (Right source, Right time, Right rate, Right place) (Snyder, 2017), the optimization of plant combinations according to the final purpose of the animal system including the more efficient cultivars and species (Pijlman et al, 2020), and the integration of the soil-plant-animal system, considering more efficient grazing regimes and N inputs on animal feed and manures as a source of organic fertilizer (Oenema et al, 2014;de Klein et al, 2017). Fertilizers and manures NUE may vary between 50 and 80% depending on agro-climatic conditions, soil parameters, types of pastures, and other factors (Powell et al, 2010).…”

Role of plants in reducing nitrogen losses

“…Emerging questions from both reviews identify the need for further laboratory, field, and modelling research, in order to better understand the mechanisms of specific plants that show potential to reduce N losses to the wider environment. Consequently, we include research papers by Malcolm et al (2019), Gardiner et al (2019aGardiner et al ( , 2019b, Rayner et al (2019) and Pijlmana et al (2019) who used a range of approaches, in both field and laboratory studies, to describe use of catch crops, novel methodologies and plant compounds to examine relationships between plants, animals and soil N processes.…”