Minimizing nitrogen environmental impacts in intensive greenhouse vegetable production systems in Shandong, China (NIVEP)
Soil Sciences
Final Report Abstract
Approximately 1/3 of vegetables in China are produced in solar greenhouses. Most farmers use conventional irrigation with over fertilization (CIF), thereby applying approximately 2000 kg N ha^-1 fertilizer over two cropping seasons per year. In the project NIVEP (Minimizing nitrogen environmental impacts in intensive greenhouse vegetable production systems in Shandong, China), we quantified environmental N losses by leaching (organic and inorganic N compounds) or due to gaseous emissions (in the form of the greenhouse gas N2O, but as well in the form of N2) for different greenhouse vegetable production management systems. Our results show, that N leaching losses for standard farmers practice (over-fertilization and flood irrigation) often exceed 400 kg N ha^-1 yr^-1 and that N2O emissions may be as high as 50-70 kg N ha^-1 yr^-1. These are enormous losses of reactive N compounds which are extremely damaging for the environment due to effects on water climate or on the climate systems. Moreover, N2 production by denitrification may as well be about 250-450 kg N ha^-1 yr^-1. Considering N2 (and N2O) production by denitrification in combination with observed N leaching losses and plant N uptake allowed us to show that most of the applied organic and inorganic fertilizers is lost to the environment (about 80-90%) and not taken up by the crop. This is highly alarming and calls for a revision of current management schemes applied for vegetable production in solar greenhouses in China. Specific attention should be given to the period of anaerobic soil disinfection (ASD). ASD is currently developing to a standard practice to combat soil born diseases, specifically nematodes. ASD is usually applied every 2-3 years during the summer fallow period and has so far not been considered regarding its importance as a period of major N losses to the environment. Our experiment shows, that N losses during the ASD period are gigantic and often higher as during the crop growing period. This huge environmental N losses may only be reduced if farmers stop to apply chicken manure to the soil for priming ASD. This is unnecessary and counterproductive as incorporation of residues with a wide C:N ratio (and not of chicken manure) is a very effective measure to promote long-term soil anaerobiosis (about 14 days) and helps as well to remove access soil N by denitrification (mainly as N2) and to rebalance nutrients in the soil. Overall, we found alarming evidence that soil health is at risk in solar greenhouse vegetable production systems in China, e.g. manifested by extremely high soil N concentrations, major nutrient imbalances (e.g. N:P:K ratios, soils may not need P and K fertilizer applications for years), but not by high heavy metal concentrations. This calls for rapid adaptations of the production systems, specifically, it is recommended to consider large scale introduction of drip fertigation, reduction of rates of fertilizer applications, while increasing rates of residue and biochar incorporation in soils, which will lead to increasing soil carbon stocks and increasing retention capacity of the soil for nutrients.
Publications
- 2019, Drip fertigation significantly reduces nitrogen leaching in solar greenhouse vegetable production system. Environmental Pollution 245, 694-701
Lv H, Lin S, Wang Y, Lian X, Zhao Y, Li Y, Du J, Wang Z, Wang J, Butterbach-Bahl K
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2018.11.042) - 2020, Application of mixed straw and biochar meets plant demand of carbon dioxide and increases soil carbon storage in sunken solar greenhouse vegetable production. Soil Use Managem. 36, 439-448
Zhao Y, Lin S, Liu Y, Li G, Wang J, Butterbach-Bahl K
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/sum.12579) - 2020, Conventional flooding irrigation and over fertilization drives soil pH decrease not only in the top- but also in subsoil layers in solar greenhouse. Geoderma 363, 114156
Lv H, Zhao Y, Wang Y, Wan L, Wang J, Butterbach-Bahl K, Lin S
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2019.114156) - 2021, Anaerobic soil disinfestation with incorporation of straw and manure significantly increases greenhouse gases emission and reduces nitrate leaching while increasing leaching of dissolved organic N. Sci. Total Environm. 785, 147307
Zhao Y, Lin S, Wan Li, Qasim W, Hu J, Xue T, Lv H, Butterbach-Bahl K
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147307) - 2021, Drip fertigation promotes water and nitrogen use efficiency and yield stability through improved root growth for tomatoes in plastic greenhouse production. Agriculture, Ecosystem and Environment 313, 107379
Hu, J, Gettel G, Fan Z, Lv H, Zhao Y, Yu Y, Wang J, Butterbach-Bahl K, Li G, Lin S
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2021.107379) - 2021, Drip fertigation with straw incorporation significantly reduces N2O emission and N leaching while maintaining high vegetable yields in solar greenhouse production. Environmental Pollution 273, 116521
Zhao Y, Lv H, Qasim W, Wan L, Wang Y, Lian X, Liu Y, Hu J, Wang Z, Li G, Wang J, Lin S, Butterbach-Bahl K
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2021.116521) - 2021, Global greenhouse vegetable production systems are hotspots of soil N2O emissions and nitrogen leaching: A meta-analysis. Environmental Pollution 272, 116372
Qasim W, Xia L, Lin S, Wan L, Zhao Y, Butterbach-Bahl K
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2020.116372) - 2021, Improving soil respiration while maintaining soil C stocks in sunken plastic greenhouse vegetable production systems – Advantages of straw application and drip fertigation. Agric. Ecosys. Environm. 316, 107464
Wang Y, Dannenmann M, Lin S, Lv H, Li G, Lian X, Wang Z, Wang J, Butterbach-Bahl K
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2021.107464) - 2022, Heavy metal and nutrient concentrations in top- and sub-soils of greenhouses and arable fields in East China – Effects of cultivation years, management, and shelter. Environm. Pollution 119494
Wan L, Lv H, Qasim W, Xi L, Yao Z, Hu J, Zhao Y, Ding X, Zheng X, Li G, Lin S, Butterbach-Bahl K
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119494) - 2022, Impact of anaerobic soil disinfestation on seasonal N2O emissions and N leaching in greenhouse vegetable production system depends on amount and quality of organic matter additions. Sci.Total Environm., 830, 154673
Qasim W, Wan L, Lv H, Zhao Y, Hu J, Meng F, Lin S, Butterbach-Bahl K
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154673) - 2022, The potential importance of soil denitrification as a major N loss pathway in intensive greenhouse vegetable production systems. Plant and Soil 471, 157-174
Qasim W, Zhao Z, Li W, Lv H, Lin S, Gettel G, Butterbach-Bahl K
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-05187-2)
