Research/Expertise
Environmental (or Conservation) Management
Overview:
The intensification of agricultural production through the application of nitrogen fertilisers has contaminated freshwaters to such an extent that integrated approaches are now being developed to limit the polluting effects on drinking water and the eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems. Innovative solutions include combined land management practices, for example planting cover crops and minimum tillage, and land conversion to less intensive uses, for example grassland, woodland and reconstructed wetlands. These environmental and conservation measures have the potential to generate N2O in chemically reducing environments such as riparian buffer zones, reconstructed wetlands and coastal salt marshes and it is this pollution ‘swapping’ of nitrate for N2O that needs further research into how land management practices may affect N2O emissions.
