Objective
Nitrogen is a valuable resource. The contribution and management of different sources such as animal wastes, including both slurry and excretal returns from grazing animals, and clover, is assessed with a view to reduction of inputs and reduced risk of pollution. Depending on the treatment studied, nitrate leached varied up to 100 Kilograms per hectare per annum. Whether this caused pollution or not depends on the volume of drained water. Nitrate leaching increased with soil permeability, decreased with mixed grass legume swards when receiving no mineral fertilization and was less for cut grasslands than for those subjected to grazing. Large site to site variations have been observed. With respect to gaseous losses, denitrification increases with mineral nitrogen application. When slurry is applied up to 20% of the nitrogen is lost by volatilization which increases with ambient temperature, leaf area index and sunny weather. Low soil permeability also favours gaseous losses as compared with the amount leached. Nitrogen fixation by legumes in grass legume swards varies according to site. Continuous grazing decreases nitrogen fixation compared with rotational grazing.
Present grassland and mixed farming systems lead to environment pollution and agricultural surplusses.
This project will review the situation variability in Europe and acquire new knowledge about N cycle and the factors responsible for nitrate pollution in each system.
Technical (e.g. drained plots, lysimeters, ceramic cups, etc.) and methodological basis used to measure and/or predict NO3 pollution are carried out and compared.
The main aspects of the N cycle (N-fertilization, N- uptake, denitrification, volatilization, leaching, cattle density, ...) and their weight on the final production are investigated.
The contribution and management of different sources of nitrogen are studied (N from slurry, N from clover, N from excretal returns, ...) with a special emphasis on reduction of inputs.
The many experiments carried out cover a large range of soils and climate conditions, fertilizer or other sources of nitrogen levels and management methods. These are studied in relation to the intensive level which is the control treatment in each area.
In another step, means to provide sustainable extensification are tested on integrated farmlets.
The provision of data obtained from several contrasting areas will permit to organize into a hierarchy the factors responsible for NO3 pollution in grassland and mixed farming systems and the means for extensifying the latter.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences environmental sciences pollution
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture industrial crops fodder
- agricultural sciences animal and dairy science domestic animals animal husbandry
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture grains and oilseeds legumes
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Coordinator
49070 Angers
France
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