Green Manures and Crop Residues as Source of Nutrients in Tropical Environment | InTechOpen, Published on: 2016-06-30. Authors: Rafael Vasconcelos Valadares, Lucas de Ávila‐Silva, Rafael da Silva Teixeira, et

Process-based models (PBM) are important tools for understanding the benefits of Integrated Crop-Livestock Systems (ICLS), such as increasing land productivity and improving environmental conditions. PBM can provide insights into the contribution of agricultural production to climate change and help identify potential greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation and carbon sequestration options. Rehabilitation of degraded lands is a key strategy for achieving food security goals and can reduce the need for new agricultural land. This study focused on the calibration and validation of the DayCent PBM for a typical ICLS adopted in Brazil from 2018 to 2020. We also present the DayCent parametrization for two forage species (ruzigrass and millet) grown simultaneously, bringing some innovation in the modeling challenges. We used aboveground biomass to calibrate the model, randomly selecting data from 70% of the paddocks in the study area. The calibration obtained a coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.69 and a relative RMSE of 37.0%. During the validation, we used other variables (CO₂ flux, grain biomass, and soil water content) measured in the ICLS and performed a double validation for plant growth to evaluate the robustness of the model in terms of generalization. R² validations ranged from 0.61 to 0.73, and relative RMSE from 11.3 to 48.3%. Despite the complexity and diversity of ICLS results show that DayCent can be used to model ICLS, which is an important step for future regional analyses and large-scale evaluations of the impacts of ICLS.

Vigorous Eucalyptus plantations produce 10⁵ to 10⁶ km ha⁻¹ of fine roots that probably increase carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling in rhizosphere soil. However, the quantitative importance of rhizosphere priming is still unknown for most ecosystems, including these plantations. Therefore, the objective of this work was to propose and evaluate a mechanistic model for the prediction of rhizosphere C and N cycling in Eucalyptus plantations. The potential importance of the priming effect was estimated for a typical Eucalyptus plantation in Brazil. The process-based model (ForPRAN – Forest Plantation Rhizosphere Available Nitrogen) predicts the change in rhizosphere C and N cycling resulting from root growth and consists of two modules: (1) fine-root growth and (2) C and N rhizosphere cycling. The model describes a series of soil biological processes: root growth, rhizodeposition, microbial uptake, enzymatic synthesis, depolymerization of soil organic matter, microbial respiration, N mineralization, N immobilization, microbial death, microbial emigration and immigration, and soil organic matter (SOM) formation. Model performance was quantitatively and qualitatively satisfactory when compared to observed data in the literature. Input variables with the most influence on rhizosphere N mineralization were (in order of decreasing importance) root diameter > rhizosphere thickness > soil temperature > clay concentration. The priming effect in a typical Eucalyptus plantation producing 42 m³ ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ of shoot biomass, with assumed losses of 40 % of total N mineralized, was estimated to be 24.6 % of plantation N demand (shoot + roots + litter). The rhizosphere cycling model should be considered for adaptation to other forestry and agricultural production models where the inclusion of such processes offers the potential for improved model performance.

The objective of this work was to assess the effect of different periods of water stress before harvest of pepper-rosmarin (Lippia sidoides) on the contents of essential oil and flavonoids. The experiment was carried out during 270 days of cultivation, with drainage lysimeters, in a completely randomized block design with five treatments: 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 days of water suppression before harvest, with four replicates. Fresh and dry matter yield, essential oil content, total flavonoids content, and water potential and temperature of leaves were determined. There was a decrease of approximately 50% in oil content and of 60% in total flavonoid content with the reduction of leaf water potential in 0.3 MPa. Essential oil is more sensitive to water stress than total flavonoids.

O experimento foi conduzido em casa de vegetação da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, com o objetivo de avaliar o crescimento inicial, a eficiência de uso do P e frações de fósforo em três espécies florestais submetidas a quatro níveis de P. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi o inteiramente casualizado em arranjo fatorial (3 x 4) com três repetições. Mudas de gonçalo-alves (Astronium fraxinifolium Schott) e barbatimão (Stryphnodendron adstringens (Mart.) Coville), espécies nativas do Cerrado, e acácia-australiana (Acacia mangium Willd.), espécie exótica, foram cultivadas em Latossolo Vermelho-Amarelo adubado com 0, 150, 300 e 600 mg dm^-3 de P.Aos 240 dias após a emergência, as plantas foram avaliadas quanto a altura, diâmetro do colo, produção de matéria seca, fósforo total solúvel em ácido e frações de P. As diferentes doses de fósforo influenciaram o crescimento inicial, a absorção e os teores totais e das frações de P, nas três espécies. A espécie acácia-australiana apresentou maior crescimento em relação às espécies nativas nas maiores doses de P. As espécies do Cerrado, por sua vez, apresentaram maior investimento em raízes e maior armazenamento de fósforo em formas inorgânicas, com destaque para o barbatimão. A relação P inorgânico:P orgânico mostrou-se adequada para a avaliação do status nutricional de P de espécies florestais.