Pastures are of central importance in food production and provide multiple ecosystem services. The objective of this paper was to determine whether the intensification of pasture-based animal production systems, through practices such as fertilization and improved pasture species, has a higher capacity in the short-term (five years) to sequester carbon in the soil compared to (1) natural grassland without anthropogenic interactions, (2) natural grassland fertilized and overseeded with exotic species, and (3) annual pastures with frequent soil disturbance. The study assessed the organic carbon stock (OCS), total organic carbon (TOC), particle size, porosity, and density at different soil strata, as well as the root system and forage production. Forage dry matter (DM) production varied significantly with means ranging from 6615 to 13,000 kg ha^–1 year^–1 for natural grassland (NG) and permanent pasture (PP), respectively. Improved natural grassland (ING) and NG presented a higher density and root diameter than PP and annual pasture (AP). Forage systems significantly influenced soil porosity and density, with NG and ING showing lower soil densities and higher soil porosities. The OCS (0–100 cm) was similar between NG (270 Mg ha^–1), ING (255 Mg ha^–1), PP (274 Mg ha^–1), and AP systems (256 Mg ha^–1). Over a period of five years, the intensification of pasture-based animal production systems did not have a significant impact on OCS in the soils of a Brazilian subtropical highland.

Tangolagrass (Brachiaria arrecta × Brachiaria mutica) is a stoloniferous warm-season grass considered as an alternative to forming permanent grasslands in waterlogged tropical regions. However, information about grazing management targets for such species is still scarce. This two-year study aimed to identify pre-grazing canopy heights that do not compromise both leaf lamina production and nutritive value of tangolagrass pastures, and to test whether lower canopy height could decrease stolon elongation process. To this end, three pre-grazing canopy heights (20, 30, or 40 cm, all lowered in 40% of their initial heights) were assigned to nine 390-m² plots grazed by cattle. Herbage, leaf, and stem accumulation rates were not different among treatments (57, 23, and 27 kg DM ha⁻¹ d⁻¹, respectively; p > 0.05). Also, neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) were similar among treatments (56 and 24% DM, respectively; p > 0.05), but crude protein (CP) was greater (p = 0.0180) in pastures managed with 30 cm (24.7% DM × 22.5% DM). Thus, pre-grazing canopy heights between 20–40 cm combined with low levels of defoliation (up to 40% of the initial height) provide the same primary productivity in tangolagrass pastures. However, stolon elongation could not be reduced within such canopy height targets.

Sustainable management of vineyard residues through biochar production requires balancing carbon stability with agronomically relevant nutrient functionality. Pyrolysis temperature controls this trade-off by affecting carbon condensation and micronutrient availability. This study aimed to determine how pyrolysis temperatures (300 and 600 °C) govern this trade-off in vineyard-trimming biochars. The motivation focuses on optimizing carbon storage while maintaining micronutrient availability. Biochars were produced by slow pyrolysis at 300 and 600 °C for 1 h and characterized using proximate and elemental analyses, total macro- and micronutrient determination, and DTPA extraction to evaluate potentially bioavailable trace elements. The results showed that increasing temperature from 300 to 600 °C reduced yield (45.15 to 32.30%) and volatile matter (40.33 to 16.50%), while increasing fixed carbon from 55.37 to 77.33% and total carbon from 66.49 to 77.89%. Atomic ratios (H/C: 0.67 to 0.31; O/C: 0.32 to 0.18) confirmed enhanced carbon condensation at 600 °C. Regarding nutrients, although total Mn, Fe, Cu, and Zn concentrations declined at higher temperatures, their potentially bioavailable fractions (operationally defined as extractable with the chelating agent DTPA showed element-specific redistribution; Fe, Cu, and Zn extractability increased, while Mn decreased. These findings reveal a temperature-driven trade-off between carbon sequestration and micronutrient release.

Accurate greenhouse gas inventories require region-specific emission factors (EFs). Current nitrous oxide (N ₂ O) inventories often rely on IPCC Tier 1 defaults, which may not accurately represent subtropical grazing systems where field-based data remain scarce. This study aimed to evaluate how pasture intensification gradients interact with different nitrogen sources (urea fertilizer, cattle urine, and dung) to regulate N ₂ O emission factors in the Southern Brazilian Highlands, providing regionally calibrated data to assess their alignment with IPCC default values. Nitrous oxide emissions were measured over 100 days using static chambers in four systems: natural grassland (NG), improved natural grassland (ING), perennial pasture (PP), and annual pasture with soil disturbance (AP). Measured EFs suggested a trend toward lower values than IPCC defaults for most sources. Urea in AP was the only treatment exceeding the 1.6% default (EF = 1.7%), while urea-EFs in PP and ING averaged 0.77%. Urine-EFs averaged 0.71% in AP/ING and 0.23% in NG/PP, while dung consistently showed the lowest values (mean = 0.28%). These findings suggest that N ₂ O emissions are governed by two interacting hierarchies: management intensity (NG < ING ≈ PP < AP) and nitrogen source (urea > urine ≈ dung). Overall, these findings suggest that the monitored subtropical grazing systems with stable soil structures tended to exhibit lower N ₂ O emission factors than current IPCC Tier 1 default values. Disaggregating EFs by source and management intensity improves national inventories and informs mitigation strategies, such as reducing soil disturbance to preserve the naturally low N ₂ O emission potential of subtropical pastures.