Thyme, Mette and Ambus, Per (2002) Production of N2O in grass-clover pastures. In: van Ham, J; Baede, APM; Guicherit, R and Williams-Jacobse, JGFM (Eds.) Non-CO2 greenhouse gases: Scientific understanding, control options and policy aspects, Millpress, Rotterdam, Holland, pp. 149-150.
In organic as well as conventional dairy farming, grass-clover pastures is an important component of the cropping system. This is because grass-clover is an excellent cattle fodder, and because clover has the ability of fixing atmospheric N2. When budgets for N2O emissions are made accord-ing to the IPCC guidelines it is assumed that 1.25 % of added nitrogen is emitted as N2O. This emission factor is used for all nitrogen inputs although the factor relies on experiments with fertilizer and manure, only. The emission factor for biological fixed nitrogen may be lower than 1.25 %, because nitrogen is released only slowly into the soil. However knowledge is very sparse.
On the other hand, when the effect of grazing cattle is added the situation might be different. In Denmark organic cattle are supposed to be on grazing fields for at least 150 days a year. Nitrogen returned to the system in urine and dung is likely to locally exceed the needs of the plants and is therefore at risk of being lost as N2O. Thus far, however, there have only been a few detailed estimates of total N2O emissions from grassland livestock productions, and understanding of the factors controlling N2O emissions remains unsatisfactory.
|EPrint Type:||Conference paper, poster, etc.|
|Type of presentation:||Paper|
|Subjects:||Environmental aspects > Air and water emissions|
|Research affiliation:||Denmark > DARCOF II (2000-2005) > I.13 (DINOG) Dinitrogen fixation and nitrous oxide losses in grass-clover pastures|
|Deposited By:||Ambus, Professor Per|
|Deposited On:||13 Feb 2003|
|Last Modified:||12 Apr 2010 07:27|
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