Journal article
Can seasonal soil N mineralisation trends be leveraged to enhance pasture growth?
F Bilotto, MT Harrison, MDA Migliorati, KM Christie, DW Rowlings, PR Grace, AP Smith, RP Rawnsley, PJ Thorburn, RJ Eckard
Science of the Total Environment | Published : 2021
Abstract
Background: Soil N mineralisation is the process by which organic N is converted into plant-available forms, while soil N immobilisation is the transformation of inorganic soil N into organic matter and microbial biomass, thereafter becoming bio-unavailable to plants. Mechanistic models can be used to explore the contribution of mineralised or immobilised N to pasture growth through simulation of plant, soil and environment interactions driven by management. Purpose: Our objectives were (1) to compare the performance of three agro-ecosystems models (APSIM, DayCent and DairyMod) in simulating soil N, pasture biomass and soil water using the same experimental data in three diverse environments..
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Awarded by Dairy Australia
Funding Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Warwick Dougherty and Graeme Ward for the experimental datasets used in this work. The `More Profit from Nitrogen: enhancing the nutrient use efficiency of intensive cropping and pasture systems' project was supported by funding from Dairy Australia and the Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (RRDP1716) as part of its Rural R&D for Profit program.