soil nutrient News
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International soil conference opens in Brisbane
“It’s underfoot but often forgotten yet our soil resources are crucial to our very existence,” says the Chief of CSIRO Land and Water, Dr Neil McKenzie. “Any gardener or farmer knows that soil is an astonishing material. It’s the natural reactor in the landscape that forms the basis for our supply of food, clean water and biodiversity.” Australia is a net ...
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Damaging Human Impact on the Land ‘Unsustainable’
A new UN report examining how land resources such as water, soil and biodiversity are being managed around the world has found that human activity is damaging and degrading the earth in an unsustainable way. The second edition of the Global Land Outlook – which has taken five years to compile – indicates that up to 40 per cent of terrain worldwide has already been devalued, ...
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Soil and Water Conservation Society and Truterra Awarded $1.5M from USDA to Accelerate Adoption of Precision Nutrient Management Practices in Midwestern States
The Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) and Truterra, LLC have been awarded $1.5 million in funding from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to accelerate the adoption of precision nutrient management and soil health practices in partnership with agricultural retailers in Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska. SWCS is a nonprofit scientific and educational organization that ...
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Deep ploughing reduces diversity and number of earthworms
Less invasive soil preparation methods in farming, such as harrowing, have a positive impact on the numbers, biomass, and species richness of earthworms, unlike conventional ploughing, according to new research. The long-term study compared the results of five different methods of soil preparation on agricultural land in Germany over a ten-year period. Earthworms play a major role in the ...
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Nutrient levels on the decline in many Estonian rivers
A new study has analysed the impact of industrial and agricultural changes on nutrients in Estonian rivers. The results indicated that there were significant reductions in nitrogen in one third of the sites, significant reductions in phosphorus in a quarter of sites and significant reductions in both nutrients in nearly a tenth of sites. High levels of nutrients, such as nitrogen and ...
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Balanced approach to restoring farmland biodiversity shares and separates land
It is possible to balance agricultural production with improved biodiversity on farmland, according to researchers. A new study suggests using a combination of land sharing techniques, which enhance biodiversity on existing farmland, with land separation techniques, which designate separate areas for conservation and farmland production. The expansion of agriculture and intensification of ...
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Can one-time tillage improve no-till?
A one-time tillage has no adverse effects on yield or soil properties on no-till land, according to field research conducted at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Although tillage is another expense for farmers and generally increases the risk of soil erosion, a one-time tillage may be performed to correct some problem, such as a perennial weed problem. The feasibility study was conducted for ...
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Compost and climate change: a novel mitigation strategy?
Native soils are thought to take up more of the greenhouse gas methane than land used for farming. This study shows that, while agriculture can exert an adverse impact on soil methane uptake, the application of soil conditioners like compost may compensate for loss of the methane sink function. The researchers propose new land management strategies based on this finding. Agriculture has become ...
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Healthy soil is essential for a biobased & circular economy
The soil is the ground beneath our feet and the growth place for biomass. For a biobased & circular economy it is crucial to preserve this ‘pantry’ storage function of the soil. This is why Wageningen University & Research is performing dedicated research into various aspects of the soil, such as nutrients and organic material, smarter cultivation systems of a larger diversity ...
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Ants and termites boost dryland wheat yields
"Ants and termites perform the same ecosystem service functions in dryland agriculture that earthworms perform in cooler and wetter areas, but the potential for ants and termites to provide these benefits has received little attention until now," said CSIRO's Dr Theo Evans. "We already knew that the activities of ants and termites affect soil structure, aeration, water infiltration and nutrient ...
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