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Brachiaria species influence nitrate transport in soil by modifying soil structure with their root system

Leaching of nitrate from fertilisers diminishes nitrogen use efficiency (the portion of nitrogen used by a plant) and is a major source of agricultural pollution. To improve nitrogen capture, grasses such as brachiaria are increasingly used, especially in South America and Africa, as a cover crop, e...

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Autores principales: Galdos, M. V., Brown, E., Rosolem, C. A, Pires, L. F., Hallett, P. D., Mooney, S. J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7081357/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32193510
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61986-0
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author Galdos, M. V.
Brown, E.
Rosolem, C. A
Pires, L. F.
Hallett, P. D.
Mooney, S. J.
author_facet Galdos, M. V.
Brown, E.
Rosolem, C. A
Pires, L. F.
Hallett, P. D.
Mooney, S. J.
author_sort Galdos, M. V.
collection PubMed
description Leaching of nitrate from fertilisers diminishes nitrogen use efficiency (the portion of nitrogen used by a plant) and is a major source of agricultural pollution. To improve nitrogen capture, grasses such as brachiaria are increasingly used, especially in South America and Africa, as a cover crop, either via intercropping or in rotation. However, the complex interactions between soil structure, nitrogen and the root systems of maize and different species of forage grasses remain poorly understood. This study explored how soil structure modification by the roots of maize (Zea maize), palisade grass (Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu) and ruzigrass (Brachiaria ruziziensis) affected nitrate leaching and retention, measured via chemical breakthrough curves. All plants were found to increase the rate of nitrate transport suggesting root systems increase the tendency for preferential flow. The greater density of fine roots produced by palisade grass, subtly decreased nitrate leaching potential through increased complexity of the soil pore network assessed with X-ray Computed Tomography. A dominance of larger roots in ruzigrass and maize increased nitrate loss through enhanced solute flow bypassing the soil matrix. These results suggest palisade grass could be a more efficient nitrate catch crop than ruzigrass (the most extensively used currently in countries such as Brazil) due to retardation in solute flow associated with the fine root system and the complex pore network.
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spelling pubmed-70813572020-03-23 Brachiaria species influence nitrate transport in soil by modifying soil structure with their root system Galdos, M. V. Brown, E. Rosolem, C. A Pires, L. F. Hallett, P. D. Mooney, S. J. Sci Rep Article Leaching of nitrate from fertilisers diminishes nitrogen use efficiency (the portion of nitrogen used by a plant) and is a major source of agricultural pollution. To improve nitrogen capture, grasses such as brachiaria are increasingly used, especially in South America and Africa, as a cover crop, either via intercropping or in rotation. However, the complex interactions between soil structure, nitrogen and the root systems of maize and different species of forage grasses remain poorly understood. This study explored how soil structure modification by the roots of maize (Zea maize), palisade grass (Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu) and ruzigrass (Brachiaria ruziziensis) affected nitrate leaching and retention, measured via chemical breakthrough curves. All plants were found to increase the rate of nitrate transport suggesting root systems increase the tendency for preferential flow. The greater density of fine roots produced by palisade grass, subtly decreased nitrate leaching potential through increased complexity of the soil pore network assessed with X-ray Computed Tomography. A dominance of larger roots in ruzigrass and maize increased nitrate loss through enhanced solute flow bypassing the soil matrix. These results suggest palisade grass could be a more efficient nitrate catch crop than ruzigrass (the most extensively used currently in countries such as Brazil) due to retardation in solute flow associated with the fine root system and the complex pore network. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-03-19 /pmc/articles/PMC7081357/ /pubmed/32193510 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61986-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Galdos, M. V.
Brown, E.
Rosolem, C. A
Pires, L. F.
Hallett, P. D.
Mooney, S. J.
Brachiaria species influence nitrate transport in soil by modifying soil structure with their root system
title Brachiaria species influence nitrate transport in soil by modifying soil structure with their root system
title_full Brachiaria species influence nitrate transport in soil by modifying soil structure with their root system
title_fullStr Brachiaria species influence nitrate transport in soil by modifying soil structure with their root system
title_full_unstemmed Brachiaria species influence nitrate transport in soil by modifying soil structure with their root system
title_short Brachiaria species influence nitrate transport in soil by modifying soil structure with their root system
title_sort brachiaria species influence nitrate transport in soil by modifying soil structure with their root system
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7081357/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32193510
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61986-0
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