Root system characterization and water requirements of ten perennial herbaceous species for biomass production managed with high nitrogen and water inputs

Barco, Alberto; Maucieri, Carmelo; Borin, Maurizio

doi:10.1016/j.agwat.2017.10.017

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…In the three years of experiments the RSN for both giant reed Control and giant reed CS20 were evenly distributed across soil layers. Interestingly, these patterns of RSN across soil layers are quite similar to the ones of water uptake reported for giant reed by Barco et al (2018). This suggests that giant reed possesses a uniform, well distributed rooting system activity until 0.8 m soil depth.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

“…Perennial crops allow nitrogen and water removal far beyond the capability of most annual crops (Ceotto and Spallacci, 2006). Owing to its extended canopy cover (Cosentino et al, 2016), deep rooting systems (Barco et al, 2018), and high N uptake (Ceotto et al, 2015) giant reed in principle could be regarded as well suited to remove soil nitrate, leaving low RSN, although no data were reported to substantiate this hypothesis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Residual soil nitrate as affected by giant reed cultivation and cattle slurry fertilisation

Ceotto¹,

Marchetti²,

Castelli

2018

Ital J Agronomy

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The residual soil nitrate (RSN) is the amount of nitrate which remains in soil profile after crop uptake has ceased, typically in the autumn. The RSN is prone to leaching and therefore poses serious environmental concerns, especially in areas with intensive livestock activities. Little is known about the ability of the energy grass giant reed in leaving low RSN. Such ability would add a desirable environmental benefit to giant reed cultivation. This article reports on snapshot measurements of RSN across soil profile in the autumn of three consecutive years: 2010, 2011 and 2012. Soil nitrate content was measured on soil samples collected from the soil layers 0-0.2 m, 0.2-0.4 m, 0.4-0.6 m and 0.6-0.8 m. The RSN of giant reed was compared with RSN of the energy crops sweet sorghum and poplar short rotation coppice (SRC). The three energy crops were treated with two fertilisation regimes: 0 kg N ha–1 (Control) and 20 mm of cattle slurry (CS20). Soil samples were also taken for a reference crop of winter wheat following winter wheat and receiving no N supply. Our findings for the three years of experiment can be summarised as follows: i) in case of the unfertilised Control, the three dedicated energy crops giant reed, sweet sorghum and poplar SRC left in soil profile in the autumn significantly lower amounts of RSN compared to the reference crop of wheat. Hence, all the three energy crops provided in similar manner the environmental benefit of leaving lower RSN; ii) in case of cattle slurry application the real advantage of giant reed cultivation became surprisingly evident. In fact, in three subsequent years the treatment giant reed CS20 never determined RSN significantly higher than RSN for giant reed Control. The RSN for giant reed with treatment CS20 was significantly lower than that the reference crop of wheat in all the three years. Unlike poplar SRC and sweet sorghum, giant reed exerted effective soil nitrate removal with a relatively high rate of cattle slurry application. Hence, this species can be regarded as suitable not only to utilise livestock effluents, but also to reduce the risk of nitrate pollution in many land use situations dealing with nitrogen surplus.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Residual soil nitrate as affected by giant reed cultivation and cattle slurry fertilisation

Ceotto¹,

Marchetti²,

Castelli

2018

Ital J Agronomy

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“…Ignorance regarding the energetic properties of the lignocellulosic materials from agricultural environments has led to numerous investigations determining the calorific value, ash, and elemental composition of the wood of different crops, such as the orange tree [19][20][21], the olive tree [8,20,21], the almond tree [19,20,22], the apple tree [23], the vine [8,19,20], and even herbaceous plant remains from greenhouses [24,25]. The heating or calorific value is one of the most important aspects related to the use of biomass, as it expresses the energy content of the biomass fuel and is a key parameter that has been widely used for the development of calorific power prediction models based on elemental, proximal and structural composition [26][27][28][29][30], although unfortunately the accuracy of the correlations based on those analyses are generally not very high [31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Fertilization and Rootstocks in the Biomass Energy Characterization of Prunus dulcis (Miller)

et al. 2018

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The importance of replacing fossil fuels with new energy routes such as the use of biomass leads to the improvement of sources such as agricultural and forest systems through adequate management techniques.The selection of the vegetal material and the management practices can influence the properties and quality of the obtained biofuel. The properties of the biomass obtained from pruning almond trees (Prunus dulcis (Mill)) have been analyzed in this study. Two varieties were tested, Marcona and Vayro, with three rootstocks, GF305, GF677 and GN Garnem, under different fertilization systems. The quality of the biofuel was evaluated with respect to the chemical composition and gross calorific value. We observed that the variables that mostly influenced the gross calorific value of the biomass were the variety, the rootstock and, primarily, the variety-rootstock interaction. Marcona presented better biomass properties than Vayro. Trees grafted on GF305 obtained a higher gross calorific value than the ones grafted on GF677 and GN Garnem. The percentage of nitrogen highly depended on the fertilization treatment applied, with saccharides and aminoacid fertilization accumulating a higher level of nitrogen than the humic and fluvic fertilization.

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“…where Q is the volumetric water flow; K sat is the lateral saturated hydraulic conductivity (on average 4.2 cm hour −1 , as reported in Borin et al [30]); ∆h is the difference between the hydraulic heads; S is the surface involved in the loss; D is the distance between the measured hydraulic heads. Additionally, an estimation of crop evapotranspiration (ET C ) was provided using ET 0 [27] and averaged monthly crop coefficients [31].…”

Section: Calculations and Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-Year N and P Removal of a 10-Year-Old Surface Flow Constructed Wetland Treating Agricultural Drainage Waters

2019

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Surface flow constructed wetlands (SFCWs) can be effectively used to treat agricultural drainage waters, reducing N and P surface water pollution. In the Venice Lagoon drainage basin (northeastern Italy), an SFCW was monitored during 2007-2013 to assess its performance in reducing water, N, and P loads more than 10 years after its creation. Nitrogen concentrations showed peaks during winter due to intense leaching from surrounding fields. Phosphorus concentrations were higher after prolonged periods with no discharge, likely due to mobilization of P of the decomposing litter inside the basin. Over the entire period, N removal efficiency was 83% for NO 3 -N and 79% for total N; P removal efficiency was 48% for PO 4 -P and 67% for total P. Values were higher than in several other studies, likely due to the fluctuating hydroperiod that produced discontinuous and reduced outflows. Nitrogen outlet concentrations were reduced by the SFCW, and N removal ratios decreased with increasing hydraulic loading, while no strong correlations were found in the case of P. The SFCW was shown to be an effective long-term strategy to increase water storage and reduce N and P loads in the Venice Lagoon drainage basin.

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Root system characterization and water requirements of ten perennial herbaceous species for biomass production managed with high nitrogen and water inputs

Cited by 14 publications

References 75 publications

Residual soil nitrate as affected by giant reed cultivation and cattle slurry fertilisation

Residual soil nitrate as affected by giant reed cultivation and cattle slurry fertilisation

Influence of Fertilization and Rootstocks in the Biomass Energy Characterization of Prunus dulcis (Miller)

Multi-Year N and P Removal of a 10-Year-Old Surface Flow Constructed Wetland Treating Agricultural Drainage Waters

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