Soil amendment with pyrogenic carbon (biochar) is discussed as strategy to improve soil fertility to enable economic plus environmental benefits. In temperate soils, however, the use of pure biochar mostly has moderately-negative to -positive yield effects. Here we demonstrate that co-composting considerably promoted biochars' positive effects, largely by nitrate (nutrient) capture and delivery...

Conventional agriculture has improved in crop yield but at large costs to the environment, particularly off-site pollution from mineral N fertilizers. In response to environmental concerns, organic agriculture has become an increasingly popular option. One component of organic agriculture that remains in question is whether it can reduce agricultural N losses to groundwater and the atmosphere r...

Within the Swedish Monitoring Programme for Agriculture, 27 small agricultural catchments were investigated for between 9 and 14 years (6 years for one catchment), starting in the late 1980s, to determine the impact of agricultural activities on discharge water. The catchments represent major variations in climate, soil types and farming in Sweden and hence long-term average load of total nitro...

The reduction of nitrate leaching to ensure greater protection of groundwater quality has become a global issue. The development of new technologies for more accurate dosing of nitrates helps optimize fertilization programs. This paper presents the practical application of a newly developed electrochemical sensor designed for in situ quantification of nitrate. To our knowledge, this paper is th...

A great challenge to science is to elucidate how agriculture can feed the increasing world population without damaging the environment, while preserving other resources such as freshwater. In the Seine basin, characterised by intensive agriculture, most of surface and underground water is contaminated by nitrate. Conventional agriculture has regularly increased the use of industrial fertilisers...

Addressing the issue of agricultural pollution in water protection areas (WPA) requires assessing the impact of agricultural activities at regional scales. However, current water quality modeling studies often neglect the agronomic concept of a cropping system and interactions with soils. This paper presents a participatory assessment framework involving local experts in building a shared diagn...

Wind damage in a forest stand can result varying soil effects depending on the pre-history of site, but areas with storm-felled trees generally be expected to show more nitrate leaching than undamaged stands. Previous fertilization such areas, especially nitrogen (N) fertilizer, may further increase leaching. This study examined effect partial felling 42-year-old Norway spruce Skogaby experimen...

d-coder is a fertilizer with a new slow-release mechanism consisting of an organo-mineral matrix that releases the nutrients only in the presence of growing plants. pot and field experiments were carried out to study the release pattern of n from d-coder. the experiments included grown and bare soil plots. the fertilizer treatments were d-coder, ammonium nitrate (anpreplant), and the control. a...

The Nitrates Directive aims (a) to protect water quality across Europe from nitrates originating agricultural sources that pollute ground and surface water, (b) promote good farming practices. One of the most controversial measures directive is winter prohibition period fertilization, which has been extended by a month in two steps recent years. According regulation, it forbidden apply nitrogen...

California’s dairies are the leading confined animal industry in the state. A majority of these family-owned dairies with an average herd-size of nearly 1,000 animal units are located in low-relief valleys and basins. Little is known about the impact of traditional and proposed dairy farming practices on water quality in the extensive alluvial aquifers underlying these basins. We have recently ...