N2O emissions from soils under different uses in the Brazilian Cerrado - A review

Thais Rodrigues De Sousa,And Arminda Moreira De Carvalho,Cícero Célio De Figueiredo,Maria Lucrecia Gerosa Ramos

doi:10.36783/18069657rbcs20210093

Abstract

The Cerrado (Brazilian savannah) is a biome of great socio-economic and environmental importance to Brazil. The rapid agricultural expansion in the Cerrado biome areas promoted biogeochemical cycles that affect nitrogen and carbon dynamics, leading to increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In Brazil, nitrous oxide (N2O) is the main gas in agriculture, and agricultural practices increase emissions into the atmosphere. This review aimed to assess the influence of agriculture on N2O emissions in the Cerrado region, based on existing data [...]

Highlights

On a global scale, the main changes in the Earth’s climate are due to global warming and are associated with a greater frequency of extreme weather phenomena (Galaz et al, 2018)
The N2O emissions ranged from 0.001 to 4.84 kg ha-1 in different agricultural systems (Figure 3), with the lowest values in the native Cerrado, which is not a natural source of N2O (Metay et al, 2007; Cruvinel et al, 2011; Carvalho et al, 2017). These results show that N2O emissions in agroecosystems are related to different combinations, such as soil tillage, water regime, crop rotation and fertilizer use
In the Cerrado, cumulative N2O emissions in cropping systems are less than 5 kg ha-1, and the introduction of conservation systems, such as integrated crop-livestock (ICL), is essential to mitigate N2O emissions

Summary

Introduction

The main changes in the Earth’s climate are due to global warming and are associated with a greater frequency of extreme weather phenomena (Galaz et al, 2018). Since the Industrial Revolution, there has been a significant increase in the planet’s temperature, amplified by agricultural and industrial production, and an increase in greenhouse gases (GHGs) (Ren et al, 2017). The warming of the Earth’s surface occurs due to the reception of energy in short and long waves, GHGs absorb in wavelength and, the greater the concentration of these GHGs, the greater the effect of absorption of long-wave energy and emission to the surface, increasing global temperature (NOAA, 2020). The United Nations (NU) predicts that the world’s population will exceed 9 billion by 2050, which poses the challenge of increasing agricultural production sustainably (WWAP, 2015)

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