SEMINAR:
  Soil&Water Seminar, Aug8:
  - "Assessing strategies for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from wheat production: Role of grain legumes and soil liming"
		
Wed, 08 Aug 2012 12:00 - Agriculture Lecture Theatre (G.013),in the Agriculture NW wing 
		
Assoc. Prof. Louise Barton 
The first Soil&Water Seminar for Semester 2, 2012, will be Assoc. Prof.
Louise Barton from SEE(UWA)on Weds Aug 8. All welcome!

TITLE: “Assessing strategies for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions
from wheat production: Role of grain legumes and soil liming.”

ABSTRACT: Utilising inorganic nitrogen (N) fertilizer greatly influences
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural production systems in
semi-arid regions. Our previous research demonstrated that the
production and use of urea accounted for 70% of the total GHG emissions
from wheat production in a semi-arid region of south-western Australia.
Greenhouse gases were emitted during the manufacture of the urea (34% of
total emissions), as well as following its application to land via
carbon dioxide (CO2) hydrolysis (27%), and soil nitrous oxide (N2O)
emissions (9%).  A large proportion of N2O emissions occurred between
growing seasons, and following summer rainfall events, rather than in
response to N fertilizer applications, with nitrification considered to
be the source of these losses.

Lowering N inputs is not considered to be an option for decreasing the
contribution of N fertilizer to total GHG emissions from cropped soils
in south-western Australia, as application rates are typically low.
Instead, CO2 emissions resulting from N fertilizer production and urea
hydrolysis could be partly mitigated by incorporating plants that fix
atmospheric N (e.g. grain legumes) into the crop rotation, decreasing
the reliance on synthetic N fertilizer. Furthermore, increasing soil pH
by applying lime may be an approach to decreasing N2O emitted in
response to summer rainfall events if nitrification, rather than
denitrification, is the main soil biological source of the emissions.
Consequently this seminar will present findings from a recently
completed field-based study investigating if including a grain legume
(lupin) in a cropping rotation, or increasing the soil pH via liming,
decreased the GHG emissions from wheat production in south-western
Australia.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Louise Barton is a soil scientist who has been
researching nitrogen cycling in various landuses for the past 17 years.
She is currently an Associate Professor at The University of Western
Australia, and leads the Soil Biology Group in the School of Earth &
Environment. Her current interests include measuring soil N2O emissions
from cropping soils in the Western Australian grainbelt, and
investigating the contribution of agriculture to greenhouse gas
emissions. Louise completed her undergraduate degree at The University
of Western Australia in 1991, and her PhD from the University of Waikato
in 1998
		
URL: http://www.uwa.edu.au/campus_map?id=1871
		
For more information:
  Ursula Salmon
  ursula.salmon@uwa.edu.au

Starts       : Wed, 08 Aug 2012 12:00
Ends         : Wed, 08 Aug 2012 12:45
		
Last Updated : Fri, 17 Aug 2012 12:52