Using nitrogen budgets to indicate nitrogen use efficiency and losses from whole farm systems: A comparison of three methodological approaches

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Abstract

Three approaches to nitrogen budgeting were developed and their ability to quantitatively describe nitrogen cycling in a fertilizer based and a grass-clover based beef system tested. Budgets ranged in complexity from the Economic Input:Output (EIO) budget, which accounted simply for purchases and sales of nitrogen over the farmgate, through the Biological Input:Output (BIO) budget, which included estimates of biological nitrogen fixation and attempted to partition losses into leaching and gaseous forms, to the Transfer:Recycle:Input:Output (TRIO) budget, which also accounted for key soil processes. Nitrogen unaccounted for in the fertilized system decreased with increasing budget complexity (285, 212 and 188 kg ha-1 yr-1 unaccounted for by the EIO, BIO and TRIO budgets, respectively). In the legume based grass-clover system, the EIO budget did not accurately describe total nitrogen inputs as it did not include 146 kg ha-1 yr-1 from symbiotic nitrogen fixation. In the grass-clover system, nitrogen unaccounted for was again greater using the BIO than the TRIO budget (103 and 79 kg ha-1 yr-1, respectively). In conclusion, the most complex budgeting approach (TRIO) was able to account for the fate of a greater proportion of nitrogen inputs than the simpler approaches. However, the perceived success of the different approaches was strongly dependent on the precise objective.

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Watson, C. A., & Atkinson, D. (1999). Using nitrogen budgets to indicate nitrogen use efficiency and losses from whole farm systems: A comparison of three methodological approaches. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, 53(3), 259–267. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009793120577

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