Interactive effects of grassland utilization and climatic factors govern the plant diversity-soil C relationship in steppe of North China.

The relationship between plant diversity and the ecosystem carbon pool is important for understanding the role of biodiversity in regulating ecosystem functions. However, it is not clear how the relationship between plant diversity and soil carbon content changes under different grassland use patterns. In a 3-year study from 2013 to 2015, we investigated plant diversity and soil total carbon (TC) content of grasslands in northern China under different grassland utilization methods (grazing, mowing, and enclosure) and climatic conditions.

Alfalfa-grass mixtures reduce greenhouse gas emissions and net global warming potential while maintaining yield advantages over monocultures.

Improving forage productivity with lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from limited grassland has been a hotspot of interest in global agricultural production. In this study, we analyzed the effects of grasses (tall fescue, smooth bromegrass), legume (alfalfa), and alfalfa-grass (alfalfa + smooth bromegrass and alfalfa + tall fescue) mixtures on GHG emissions, net global warming potential (Net GWP), yield-based greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI), soil chemical properties and forage productivity in cultivated grassland in northwest China during 2020-2021. Our results demonstrated that alfalfa-grass mixtures significantly improved forage productivity.

Appropriate N fertilizer addition mitigates NO emissions from forage crop fields.

Forage crops are widely cultivated as livestock feed to relieve grazing pressure in agro-pastoral regions with arid climates. However, gaseous losses of soil nitrogen (N) following N fertilizer application have been considerable in response to the pursuit of increased crop yield. A two-year experiment was carried out in a typical saline field under a temperate continental arid climate to investigate the effect of N application rate on NO emissions from barley (Hordeum vulgare L.

Selenium supplementation improves nutrient intake and digestibility, and mitigates CH emissions from sheep grazed on the mixed pasture of alfalfa and tall fescue.

Low selenium (Se) in soil and forage can adversely affect on the quality of animal-derived foods, and hence on human health. Lambs grazed on mixed pastures of alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) were supplemented with five levels of Se [0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 µg/kg body weight (BW)]. The intake of dry matter (DM) and organic matter (OM) varied with the level of Se supplementation, with a peak at 6 µg Se per kg BW (p ≤ 0.

Herbicide applications increase greenhouse gas emissions of alfalfa pasture in the inland arid region of northwest China.

Herbicides are used to control weeds in agricultural crops such as alfalfa ( L.), which is a forage crop. It is unclear what, if any, effect herbicides have on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when used on alfalfa.

Optimizing alfalfa productivity and persistence versus greenhouse gases fluxes in a continental arid region.

Alfalfa in China is mostly planted in the semi-arid or arid Northwest inland regions due to its ability to take up water from deep in the soil and to fix atmospheric N2 which reduces N fertilizer application. However, perennial alfalfa may deplete soil water due to uptake and thus aggravate soil desiccation. The objectives of this study were (1) to determine the alfalfa forage yield, soil property (soil temperature (ST), soil water content (SWC), soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil total nitrogen (STN)) and greenhouse gas (GHG: methane (CH), nitrous oxide (NO), and carbon dioxide (CO)) emissions affected by alfalfa stand age and growing season, (2) to investigate the effects of soil property on GHG emissions, and (3) to optimize the alfalfa stand age by integrating the two standard criteria, the forage yield and water use efficiency, and the total GHG efflux (CO-eq).