Abstract
On-farm soil frost control has been used for the management of volunteer potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.), a serious weed problem caused by climate change, in northern Japan. Deep soil frost penetration is necessary for the effective eradication of unharvested small potato tubers; however, this process can delay soil thaw and increase soil wetting in spring, thereby delaying agricultural activity initiation and increasing nitrous oxide emissions from soil. Conversely, shallow soil frost development helps over-wintering of unharvested potato tubers and nitrate leaching from surface soil owing to the periodic infiltration of snowmelt water. In this study, we synthesised on-farm snow cover manipulation experiments to determine the optimum soil frost depth that can eradicate unharvested potato tubers without affecting agricultural activity initiation while minimising N pollution from agricultural soil. The optimum soil frost depth was estimated to be 0.28–0.33 m on the basis of the annual maximum soil frost depth. Soil frost control is a promising practice to alleviate climate change effects on agriculture in cold regions, which was initiated by local farmers and further promoted by national and local research institutes.
Highlights
Greenhouse gas immediately after snowmelt during soil thaw[9,10,11,12]
The suppression of volunteer potatoes was considered as the intended positive effect of the soil frost control, whereas smaller ratio of snowmelt water infiltration and increased nitrate loss from the surface soil were considered as the adverse effects
Because the majority (52%) of global potato production area is located between 44°N to 58°N18 and the Tokachi region is located around the southern boundary of the zone, our findings might help overcome the volunteer potato problem in the potato-producing cold regions, while avoiding the negative consequences
Summary
Greenhouse gas (nitrous oxide) immediately after snowmelt during soil thaw[9,10,11,12]. Snowmelt water is known to immediately infiltrate the soil when the soil frost depth becomes shallow[13,14,15], leading to an increased risk of water pollution by the leaching of residual nitrate in the surface soil[16,17]. These events caused by climate change suggest that a new optimum soil frost depth needs to be determined to avoid the negative effects on local agriculture and environment. Because the majority (52%) of global potato production area is located between 44°N to 58°N18 and the Tokachi region is located around the southern boundary of the zone, our findings might help overcome the volunteer potato problem in the potato-producing cold regions, while avoiding the negative consequences
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