Abstract
AimsConsequences of climate change and land use intensification on the nitrogen (N) cycle of organic-matter rich grassland soils in the alpine region remain poorly understood. We aimed to identify fates of fertilizer N and to determine the overall N balance of an organic-matter rich grassland in the European alpine region as influenced by intensified management and warming.MethodsWe combined 15N cattle slurry labelling with a space for time climate change experiment, which was based on translocation of intact plant-soil mesocosms down an elevational gradient to induce warming of +1 °C and + 3 °C. Mesocosms were subject to either extensive or intensive management. The fate of slurry-N was traced in the plant-soil system.ResultsGrassland productivity was very high (8.2 t - 19.4 t dm ha−1 yr−1), recovery of slurry 15N in mowed plant biomass was, however, low (9.6–14.7%), illustrating low fertilizer N use efficiency and high supply of plant available N via mineralization of soil organic matter (SOM). Higher 15N recovery rates (20.2–31.8%) were found in the soil N pool, dominated by recovery in unextractable N. Total 15N recovery was approximately half of the applied tracer, indicating substantial loss to the environment. Overall, high N export by harvest (107–360 kg N ha−1 yr−1) markedly exceeded N inputs, leading to a negative grassland N balance.ConclusionsHere provided results suggests a risk of soil N mining in montane grasslands, which increases both under climate change and land use intensification.
Highlights
In the pre-alpine and alpine region of south Germany, grasslands cover over one million hectares (BMLEV2012), and are of similar importance in comparable areas in Austria, Italy and Switzerland
We combined 15N cattle slurry labelling with a space for time climate change experiment, which was based on translocation of intact plant-soil mesocosms down an elevational gradient to induce warming of +1 °C and + 3 °C
Here provided results suggests a risk of soil N mining in montane grasslands, which increases both under climate change and land use intensification
Summary
In the pre-alpine and alpine region of south Germany, grasslands cover over one million hectares (BMLEV2012), and are of similar importance in comparable areas in Austria, Italy and Switzerland. The dominant N input to montane grassland systems in the alpine and pre-alpine region is the fertilization with liquid cattle slurry, a N fertilization form which can result in high gaseous losses especially under warming (Zistl-Schlingmann et al 2019). This is of particular importance in the European alpine and pre-alpine region, where climate warming is occurring at twice the rate compared to global average, a trend that is expected to continue or even accelerate in the coming decades (Pepin et al 2015; Smiatek et al 2009; Wagner et al 2013)
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