Soil acidification is caused by a number of factors including acidic precipitation and the deposition from the atmosphere of acidifying gases or particles, such as sulphur dioxide, ammonia and nitric acid. The most important causes of soil acidification on agricultural land, however, are the application of ammonium-based fertilizers and urea, elemental S fertilizer and the growth of legumes. Acidification causes the loss of base cations, an increase in aluminium saturation and a decline in crop yields; severe acidification can cause nonreversible clay mineral dissolution and a reduction in cation exchange capacity, accompanied by structural deterioration. Soil acidity is ameliorated by applying lime or other acid-neutralizing materials. 'Liming' also reduces N2O emissions, but this is more than offset by CO 2 emissions from the lime as it neutralizes acidity. Because crop plants vary in their tolerance to acidity and plant nutrients have different optimal pH ranges, target soil pH values in the UK are set at 6.5 (5.8 in peaty soils) for cropped land and 6.0 (5.3 in peaty soils) for grassland. Agricultural lime products can be sold as 'EC Fertiliser Liming Materials' but, although vital for soil quality and agricultural production, liming tends to be strongly influenced by the economics of farming. Consequently, much less lime is being applied in the UK than required, and many arable and grassland soils are below optimum pH.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/sum.12270

Soil acidification and the importance of liming agricultural soils with particular reference to the United Kingdom.

To date, projections of European crop yields under climate change have been based almost entirely on the outputs of crop-growth models. While this strategy can provide good estimates of the effects of climatic factors, soil conditions and management on crop yield, these models usually do not capture all of the important aspects related to crop management, or the relevant environmental factors. Moreover, crop-simulation studies often have severe limitations with respect to the number of crops covered or the spatial extent. The present study, based on agroclimatic indices, provides a general picture of agroclimatic conditions in western and central Europe (study area lays between 8.5°W–27°E and 37–63.5°N), which allows for a more general assessment of climate-change impacts. The results obtained from the analysis of data from 86 different sites were clustered according to an environmental stratification of Europe. The analysis was carried for the baseline (1971–2000) and future climate conditions (time horizons of 2030, 2050 and with a global temperature increase of 5 °C) based on outputs of three global circulation models. For many environmental zones, there were clear signs of deteriorating agroclimatic condition in terms of increased drought stress and shortening of the active growing season, which in some regions become increasingly squeezed between a cold winter and a hot summer. For most zones the projections show a marked need for adaptive measures to either increase soil water availability or drought resistance of crops. This study concludes that rainfed agriculture is likely to face more climate-related risks, although the analyzed agroclimatic indicators will probably remain at a level that should permit rainfed production. However, results suggests that there is a risk of increasing number of extremely unfavorable years in many climate zones, which might result in higher interannual yield variability and constitute a challenge for proper crop management.

/pdf/agroclimatic-conditions-in-europe-under-climate-change-2gio7vdzqm.pdf

Agroclimatic conditions in Europe under climate change

Important role of alfalfa in development of animal husbandry, is based on high potential for production of biomass. Reaching of high green (over 80 t ha-1) and dry matter yield (approx. 20 t ha-1) with low investment during all period of utilization makes alfalfa production very economical. Divergent selection materials were used to create high productive domestic alfalfa cultivars with excellent field persistence, which is important factor for high and stable yield during entire exploitation period. On the other hand, alfalfa is a rich source of crude protein with excellent digestibility. Proteins from alfalfa herbage are the cheapest source of protein in animal feed. Content of crude protein strongly depend on development stage of plant material and can be 200 to 240 g kg-1 DM, while crude protein yield can be over 3.5 t ha-1. Besides that, alfalfa herbage had a high content of macro and micro element, which are so important for animal health. It is usually grown in pure stand, although it's a good component of grass-legumes mixtures. Alfalfa biomass can be used in several ways, usually as hay, but also as high quality silages, haylages, dehydrated in form of briquettes or by grazing. Symbiotic N2 fixation gives alfalfa not just economical, but very high ecological importance, too. It's a reason why alfalfa, besides important role in conventional husbandry is getting great role in sustainable agriculture and organic production. All those characteristics confirm, that alfalfa is a really 'queen' of forages.

/pdf/alfalfa-most-important-perennial-forage-legume-in-animal-q03uuvh5z4.pdf

Alfalfa-most important perennial forage legume in animal husbandry

Soil-crop models are increasingly used as predictive tools to assess yield and environmental impacts of agriculture in a growing diversity of contexts. They are however seldom evaluated at a given time over a wide domain of use. We tested here the performances of the STICS model (v8.2.2) with its standard set of parameters over a dataset covering 15 crops and a wide range of agropedoclimatic conditions in France. Model results showed a good overall accuracy, with little bias. Relative RMSE was larger for soil nitrate (49%) than for plant biomass (35%) and nitrogen (33%) and smallest for soil water (10%). Trends induced by contrasted environmental conditions and management practices were well reproduced. Finally, limited dependency of model errors on crops or environments indicated a satisfactory robustness. Such performances make STICS a valuable tool for studying the effects of changes in agro-ecosystems over the domain explored. STICS v8.2.2 soil-crop model was evaluated over a large and varied dataset using its standard set of parameters.Level of accuracy is 10-50% for plant, soil water and nitrate outputs.Model reproduces well trends arising from contrasted agro-environmental conditions.Errors are weakly dependent on the agro-environmental conditions tested.Model accuracy and robustness is considered good for scenario testing and large scale use within the conditions tested here.

Accuracy, robustness and behavior of the STICS soil-crop model for plant, water and nitrogen outputs

http://homepage.agrl.ethz.ch/~eugsterw/publications/pdf/Zeeman.2010.AFM_Rev7.pdf

Management and climate impacts on net CO2 fluxes and carbon budgets of three grasslands along an elevational gradient in Switzerland

Biodiversity and animal feed: future challenges for grassland production

Semi-natural grasslands in Europe today.

Challenges for grasslands, grassland-based systems and their production potential in Europe.

Plant diversity in grasslands and feed quality.

Winter survival, yield performance and forage quality of Festulolium cvs. for Norwegian farming.

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