Impact of selected agricultural management options on the reduction of nitrogen loads in three representative meso scale catchments in Central Germany

Land use effect and hydrological control on nitrate yield in subtropical mountainous watersheds

“…The other land use types, including grass, bare land, orchard, active vegetable farms, and inactive vegetable farms, occupy the remaining 13 % of the area. Unlike the single dominant land use landscape in America and Europe (Mayer et al, 2002;Rode et al, 2009;Rose et al, 2001), ,the land use pattern in the small mountainous catchment is mixed. The cultivated lands are mostly confined to the foothills and the riparian zones (Fig.…”

“…Compared to the other catchments around the world (Table 7), the NO 3 -N export is ∼58-4000 kg-N km −2 yr −1 from pristine to intensive agricultural catchments in USA (David et al, 1997 , 2002;Sobota et al, 2009). In Germany, pristine catchments export ∼400 kg-N km −2 yr −1 (Langusch et al, 2002), while catchments with larger arable area export 1850-4120 kg-N km −2 yr −1 (Rode et al, 2009). As for Australia, the average export from the pristine catchments is approximately 284 kg-N km −2 yr −1 , yet the slightly cultivated land would cause NO 3 -N export as high as 2304 kg-N km −2 yr −1 (Hunter et al, 2008).…”

“…Previous studies in different countries and climate zones have addressed this issue. The list includes: Poor and McDonnell (2007) in Oregon, USA; Zhang et al (2009) in the Han River, a major tributary of the Yangtze River in China; Ohrui and Mitchell (1998), Ogawa et al (2006), and Tanaka and Suzuki (2009) in Japanese forested watersheds; Walton and Hunter (2009) at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia; and Rode et al (2009) in central Germany. The mid to low latitude areas, where population and agricultural activities keep increasing, were predicted to be the hotspots for DIN (dissolved inorganic nitrogen, among which nitrate is the dominant species) export which occupies 2/3 of the global land-to-ocean N input (Dumont et al, 2005: Galloway et al, 1994.…”

Modelling the effect of different agricultural practices on stream nitrogen load in central Germany

“…Simulation models such as the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model (e.g. [21,22]) and other models such as the Jena Adaptive Modelling System (JAMS) [23] have been increasingly applied to study the impact of agricultural management practices on soil, groundwater and instream water quality through scenario analysis. For instance, the impact of conservation tillage and intercropping buffer strips was quantified in two watersheds in central Iowa in the USA [24].…”

Challenges and opportunities in accounting for non-energy use CO2 emissions: an editorial comment

“…Clearly, a number of important mitigation options are already available. Organic fertilizers, improved soil management, and the use of nutrient catch crops might reduce ammonia demand and fertilizer use (see for example Rode et al 2009). Dematerialization, materials substitutions, and higher materials recycling rates might reduce demand for NEU-CO2 emitting production processes.…”