Skip to main content

Savanna in need of Nitrogen

By: Maggilyn Cardenas 
Savannas found in West Africa have been converted to croplands and are one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change. The deterioration of soil fertility and the decrease in crop yields seen in this area has been a threat to food security and human livelihoods. The annual population growth in Ghana from 2000 to 2008 was 2.81%, while the annual food increase rate was 1.26%. Therefore, the availability of water and nutrients is thought to be critical. This not only affects West Africa but the whole world, given that Savannas are globally important ecosystems vial to human economies, cover one-fifth of the earth's land surface and support a large proportion of human livestock and wild herbivore mass. Because of climate change, the changes in the distribution and dominance of different species and constraints from soil nutrient availability could change the savanna for the better. Soil nitrogen is thought to have decreased. If this limitation to land productivity resulting from the insufficient supply of nitrogen is spread, it will become a critical constraint on global terrestrial responses to climate warming. Therefore, a modest rate of fertilizer application, around 30 kg N ha-1 year-1, could lead to sustainable and productive cropping systems. The food security and agricultural sustainability in the savanna will have to depend on N fertilization rates. 



Reference
Tan, Z., Tieszen, L. L., Liu, Shuguang, L., Tachie-Obeng, E. 2009. Modeling to evaluate the response of savanna-derived cropland to warming–drying stress and nitrogen fertilizers. Climatic Change. 100:703-715.



Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 18, 2020 at 10:00 PM

    Considering the tragic events of this year on forests, more than ever it should be taken into account the methods that could be practiced on other regions to conserve land and resources for cropping.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Hydroelectric Power actually a "Green" Energy Source?

Is Hydroelectric Power actually a "Green" Energy Source? Source: Tennessee Valley Authority (public domain) Greenhouse gases are gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, and the three major greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Natural sources of these gases consists of lakes, rivers, streams, and ponds as well. Lakes are environmentally beneficial because they are active, changing, and are important regulators of the three major greenhouse gases. That being said, lakes and reservoirs are known to be built for the purpose of generating power. So much so that water has been retained by dams that the global sea level rise has lowered approximately 0.02 inches per year in the span of 50 years. And since fossil fuels are not utilized to to produce hydroelectric power, lakes are known for their "green" energy sources alternative. Which is a common misconception because it is those lake and reservoirs that release powerful greenhouse gases into t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Leading Innovation: The Untapped Side of Organic Agriculture

By: Jasmine Rodriguez Organic farming as we know it is has taken off as the main system to diversify plant production to a global standard. The innovation and attention to small details of a sustainable metric excels on all four cylinders such as productivity, environmental impact, economic viability and social wellbeing. With high demands globally, there is certainty to a good balance in how farmers produce crops to meet every sustainable goal required. However, the importance in maintaining sustainability is required to for infrastructure to the economic barriers of organic practices to diversify agricultural farming systems. Some practices that lack sustainability include lack of information and knowledge, unreliable infrastructure and economic halts, and misperceptions to cultural biases. A challenge to the farming system is policymakers forming a certain environment to a greater complex arrangement to a standard sustainable distribution of policies with food and ecosystem security...
Post a Comment
Read more

Plastic in the Ocean Floor and Shoreline

 When it comes to the use of plastic, we use them all the time in objects that contain the drinks to the laptops that we use for schoolwork. Once they are thrown away, sometimes they can land in the oceans especially when they can leave close there. Because of this, it has caused a big harm to the marine life environment as more plastic debris has enter the ocean water. It can also cause a harm in the birds as well as thousands of birds can ingest the plastic in confusion of food. This was mention in a study by Jose G.B. Derraik, an study that was mention was in 1995 when Robards et al. examined the guts of seabirds two different times during an interval or 10-15 years that there was an increase in plastic ingestion between the year gaps. Now this is not only implying to birds, but they can also be found in the marine life as well. The reason for this is because not only can they be found in the ocean floor, but they can also be mistaken as food for some of the lifeform as well. Th...
1 comment
Read more