Cakchiquel farmers in Patzún, Guatemala stated that pest populations have increased in corn crops since they abandoned organic fertilization and adopted synthetic fertilizers. Given the dearth of scientific information about the effects of fertilization practices on pests, a controlled experiment was performed to elucidate these interactions. Pests, their natural enemies, and nutritional status...

With the increases of cropland area and fertilizer nitrogen (N) application rate, general N balance characteristics in regional agroecosystems have been widely documented. However, few studies have quantitatively analyzed the drivers of spatial changes in the N budget. We constructed a mass balance model of the N budget at the soil surface using a database of county-level agricultural statistic...

Soil organic matter (SOM) is essential for sustaining food production and maintaining ecosystem services and is a vital resource base for storing C and N. The impact of long-term use of synthetic fertilizer N on SOM, however, has been questioned recently. Here we tested the hypothesis that long-term application of N results in a decrease in SOM. We used data from 135 studies of 114 long-term ex...

Synthetic (e.g. urea) and organic fertilizers (e.g. compost) differed markedly in N isotope composition and the greater the difference between organic and synthetic fertilizer the more robust will be the differentiation of crops and vegetable grown under different farming systems. The objective of this study was to compare nitrogen and carbon isotope composition of organic fertilizers and manur...

The combination of nitrogen recovery and pharmaceutical removal processes for livestock urine treatment were investigated to suppress the discharge of pollutants and recover nitrogen as resources. We combined methylene urea synthesis from urea and adsorption and photocatalytic decomposition of sulfonamide antibiotic using rotating advanced oxidation contactor (RAOC) contained for obtaining both...

Crop production is threatened by the increased nitrogen (N) input and declining N use efficiency (NUE). Information on total N input from planted seeds/tubers, atmospheric deposition, irrigation water, crop residues, animal manure, biological N fixation, and synthetic N fertilizer and NUE based on these N inputs in China’s crop production is limited. We calculated the amount of various N inputs...

RESEARCH DROUGHT-TOLERANT VARIETIES: Research on cassava’s water conserving properties and drought tolerance may lead to better varieties for farmers. USE FERTILIZER: Manure and synthetic fertilizer can improve soil fertility, but use must be integrated with other crops in the SHORT SHELF LIFE: Without proper storage or processing, cassava begins to deteriorate in as little as two to three days...

Many developing countries implement programs and policies to increase or maintain soil fertility, with the objectives of increased crop yields and decreased poverty. However, few countries give emphasis to the biological management of soil fertility (BMSF) compared to more traditional approaches. Ethiopia emphasizes the use synthetic fertilizers to increase food security and reduce poverty, wit...

The recently discovered ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) have been suggested as contributors to the first step of nitrification in terrestrial ecosystems, a role that was previously assigned exclusively to ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB). The current study assessed the effects of agricultural management, specifically amendment of soil with biosolids or synthetic fertilizer, on nitrification rat...

The hypothesis that plants supplied with organic fertilizers are better defended against insect herbivores than those supplied with synthetic fertilizers was tested over two field seasons. Organic and synthetic fertilizer treatments at two nitrogen concentrations were supplied to Brassica plants, and their effects on the abundance of herbivore species and plant chemistry were assessed. The orga...