- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
There have been a few studies conducted in NZ about different reduction strategies in grassland, often used alongside the "but we can't stop using synthetics or we'll all starve" so "you should buy this ......... product as it has magical properties and also contains synthetic N"You can also find data to express the opposite:
So you have to put data in its context. You won't get me denying N20 emissions will increase in poorly aerated soils. whatever the farming system and also adjusted for artificial N use.
But very often tilled soils are only aerated for a few months (or maybe even days/weeks) before going back to an unaerated state because of a lack of structure/ soil life etc. So is this taken into account?
So I would like to see the data on the season long N20 fluctuations for a crop side by side. The other thing I'm not sure on (can someone tell me?) is during the act of tillage how much Nitrous oxides could potentially be emitted in cultivation? I don't think its massive but it could be something - the N has to go somewhere after all.
N is the most complicated and least linear of all. Why do we not have a debate about nitrous oxide emissions from grassland?
You're dead right IMO, the main factors are the % of pore spaces full of water, soil Carbon levels, and how high the N inputs are.
Stocking rate, less, but also significant, the spinoff is that higher stocking rates can easily increase soil C to "soak" extra N.
Living systems approaches emit much less, based on any studies I've read; which is why it's crucial to think along that line as opposed to take one part of something out of a living (interconnected, interdependent) system and look at it.
Straw man indeed.