Evapotranspiration measurements in pasture, crops, and native Brazilian Cerrado based on UAV-borne multispectral sensor.

In Brazil, agriculture consumes most of the available freshwater, especially in the Cerrado biome, where the rain cycle is marked by long periods of drought. This study, conducted at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) Research Corporation unit in Santo Antônio de Goiás, Goiás, Brazil, estimated evapotranspiration (ET) in different crops and soil cover. Using multispectral unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images, Sentinel satellite data, weather station information, and towers employing the eddy covariance method, we applied the "Simple Algorithm for Evapotranspiration Retrieving" (SAFER) to calculate ET in common bean, pasture, and semideciduous seasonal forest areas. The results showed a good agreement between UAV and satellite data, with R2 = 0.84, also validated with flow towers by the eddy covariance method. UAV-based ET was observed to correspond well to tower (EC) during full vegetative development of beans but is underestimated at the beginning of planting and in the final periods of plant senescence, due to the influence of soil or straw cover. These findings contribute to a better understanding of water dynamics in the system and to enhancing sustainable agricultural practices. This method, adapted for multispectral aerial imaging, can be applied flexibly and on-demand, in different contexts and ground cover. The study highlights the importance of integrated agricultural practices for better management of water resources and preservation of the Cerrado in balance with cultivation areas.

A global dataset for assessing nitrogen-related plant traits using drone imagery in major field crop species.

Enhancing rapid phenotyping for key plant traits, such as biomass and nitrogen content, is critical for effectively monitoring crop growth and maximizing yield. Studies have explored the relationship between vegetation indices (VIs) and plant traits using drone imagery. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding data availability, accessible datasets. Based on this context, we conducted a systematic review to retrieve relevant data worldwide on the state of the art in drone-based plant trait assessment. The final dataset consists of 41 peer-reviewed papers with 11,189 observations for 11 major crop species distributed across 13 countries. It focuses on the association of plant traits with VIs at different growth/phenological stages. This dataset provides foundational knowledge on the key VIs to focus for phenotyping key plant traits. In addition, future updates to this dataset may include new open datasets. Our goal is to continually update this dataset, encourage collaboration and data inclusion, and thereby facilitate a more rapid advance of phenotyping for critical plant traits to increase yield gains over time.

The 4p1000 initiative: Opportunities, limitations and challenges for implementing soil organic carbon sequestration as a sustainable development strategy.

Climate change adaptation, mitigation and food security may be addressed at the same time by enhancing soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration through environmentally sound land management practices. This is promoted by the "4 per 1000" Initiative, a multi-stakeholder platform aiming at increasing SOC storage through sustainable practices. The scientific and technical committee of the Initiative is working to identify indicators, research priorities and region-specific practices needed for their implementation. The Initiative received its name due to the global importance of soils for climate change, which can be illustrated by a thought experiment showing that an annual growth rate of only 0.4% of the standing global SOC stocks would have the potential to counterbalance the current increase in atmospheric CO2. However, there are numerous barriers to the rise in SOC stocks and while SOC sequestration can contribute to partly offsetting greenhouse gas emissions, its main benefits are related to increased soil quality and climate change adaptation. The Initiative provides a collaborative platform for policy makers, practitioners, scientists and stakeholders to engage in finding solutions. Criticism of the Initiative has been related to the poor definition of its numerical target, which was not understood as an aspirational goal. The objective of this paper is to present the aims of the initiative, to discuss critical issues and to present challenges for its implementation. We identify barriers, risks and trade-offs and advocate for collaboration between multiple parties in order to stimulate innovation and to initiate the transition of agricultural systems toward sustainability.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in biochar amended soils: Long-term experiments in Brazilian tropical areas.

The interest in charcoal for agricultural use (biochar) has sharply increased in recent years. However, biochar can contain groups of compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that are considered persistent pollutants, and are formed concomitantly with biochar during its production by pyrolysis. Soil samples were collected in three experimental areas at different intervals (1, 3, 5 or 6 years) after the application of 16 Mg ha-1 of biochar. The total concentrations of PAHs; benzo[a]pyrene; and the estimated total cancer risk in biochar treated plots were larger than found in the control ones, but they decreased over time, equaling the control values after three years in the high C content soil (11.2 g C kg-1 soil), or after six years in the low C content soil (6.8 g C kg-1 soil). Nevertheless, the sum of PAH concentrations found in the biochar amended plots, in the range of 15.80-39.40 ng g-1, were around two orders of magnitude below the limits of prevention established by Brazilian legislation (8100 ng g-1) and some European regulations for soils (3000 ng g-1) and also lower than the observed in previous studies about biochar amended soils. Our results indicate that, under the conditions evaluated, the application of biochar to soil in the studied proportion (16 Mg ha-1, every six years) is safe concerning soil contamination by PAHs.

Evidence of limited carbon sequestration in soils under no-tillage systems in the Cerrado of Brazil.

The Brazilian government aims at augmenting the area cropped under no-tillage (NT) from 32 to 40 million ha by 2020 as a means to mitigate CO2 emissions. We estimated soil carbon (C) sequestration under continuous NT systems in two municipalities in the Goiás state that are representative of the Cerrado. A chronosequence of NT fields of different age since conversion from conventional tillage (CT) was sampled in 2003 and 2011. Soil C levels of native Cerrado and pasture were measured for comparison. After about 11 to 14 years, soil C stocks under NT were highest and at the levels of those under natural Cerrado. Average annual rates of soil C sequestration estimated using the chronosequence approach were respectively 1.61 and 1.48 Mg C ha(-1) yr(-1) for the 2003 and 2011 sampling, and were higher than those observed using repeated sampling after eight years. The diachronic sampling revealed that the younger NT fields tended to show higher increases in soil C stocks than the older fields. Converting an extra 8 million ha of cropland from CT to NT represents an estimated soil C storage of about 8 Tg C yr(-1) during 10 to 15 years.

Classification of Brazilian soils by using LIBS and variable selection in the wavelet domain.

This paper proposes a novel analytical methodology for soil classification based on the use of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and chemometric techniques. In the proposed methodology, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is employed to build a classification model on the basis of a reduced subset of spectral variables. For the purpose of variable selection, three techniques are considered, namely the successive projection algorithm (SPA), the genetic algorithm (GA), and a stepwise formulation (SW). The use of a data compression procedure in the wavelet domain is also proposed to reduce the computational workload involved in the variable selection process. The methodology is validated in a case study involving the classification of 149 Brazilian soil samples into three different orders (Argissolo, Latossolo and Nitossolo). For means of comparison, soft independent modelling of class analogy (SIMCA) models are also employed. The best discrimination of soil types was attained by SPA-LDA, which achieved an average classification rate of 90% in the validation set and 72% in cross-validation. Moreover, the proposed wavelet compression procedure was found to be of value by providing a 100-fold reduction in computational workload without significantly compromising the classification accuracy of the resulting models.

Impact of sugarcane cultivation on the biological attributes of an oxisol in the brazilian savannah / Impacto do cultivo da cana-de-açúcar nos atributos biológicos em latossolo no cerrado brasileiro

Sugarcane is fundamental for the energy matrix in Brazil. The evaluation of biochemical attributes in different sugarcane production systems provides information on their environmental sustainability. Altogether, soil biochemical attributes are considered very sensitive indicators of changes in soil properties and of alterations caused by soil management and land-use systems. The aim of this work was to study the effect of organic and conventional sugarcane cultivation systems on microbial soil properties. Changes in carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) microbial and microbial activity were evaluated in a Cerrado Oxisol in the state of Goiás, Brazil, cultivated with sugarcane in three different production systems: organic (Organic Cane - OC), conventional with burning (Burned Cane - BC), and conventional without burning (Raw Cane - RC). The native Cerrado (NC) and other cultivated pasture (PT) were used as references. The soil samples were collected during the dry and rainy seasons from two depths: 0-10 and 10-20 cm. The chronological order of the implementation of the land-use (NC, PT and sugarcane) and cultivation (RC, BC, OC) systems were: NC, PT, RC/BC, OC. The microbial biomass C (CSMB), microbial biomass N (NSMB), basal respiration (Br), metabolic quotient (qCO2) and the CSMB/Corg, NSMB/Ntotal and CSMB/NSMB ratios were determined. The different land-use and cultivation systems influenced microbial biomass and activity. The replacement of conventional tillage for organic system recovered CSMB and NSMB levels and improved recycling of nutrients in the microbial biomass (NSMB/Ntotal). The conventional tillage system with burning (BC) was less efficient in use of energy and carbon (high qCO2), resulting in a loss of C-CO2 to the atmosphere.

A cana-de-açúcar é de suma importância na matriz energética brasileira. A avaliação dos atributos bioquímicos do solo nos diferentes sistemas de produção da cana-de-açúcar fornece informações sobre a sustentabilidade ambiental destes sistemas de produção. Os atributos bioquímicos do solo são considerados indicadores muito sensíveis às alterações causadas nas propriedades do solo, em função do manejo nos diferentes sistemas de produção agrícola. O objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar o efeito do cultivo de cana-de-açúcar em sistema orgânico e convencional nas propriedades microbiológicas do solo. As alterações no carbono (C) e nitrogênio (N) microbiano e na atividade microbiana foram avaliadas em um Latossolo Vermelho sob Cerrado no estado de Goiás, Brasil, cultivado com cana-de-açúcar em três diferentes sistemas de produção: cultivo orgânico (CO), convencional com queima (CQ) e cultivo convencional sem queima da palhada e cana crua (CC). Uma área de cerrado nativo (CN) e outra cultivada com pastagem (PT) foram usadas como referências. As amostras de solo foram coletadas em duas épocas: seca e chuvosa; e em duas profundidades: 0-10 cm e 10-20 cm. A ordem cronológica de implementação do uso da terra foram: CN, PT e cana-de-açúcar; os sistemas de cultivo foram: CN, PT, CC/CQ, OC. O carbono da biomassa microbiana do solo (CBMS), nitrogênio da biomassa microbiana do solo (NBMS), respiração basal (Rb), quociente metabólico (qCO2) e as razões CBMS/Corg e NBMS/NTotal foram determinados. Os diferentes sistemas de produção da cana-de-açúcar alteraram a biomassa e a atividade microbiana. A substituição do sistema de cultivo convencional pelo sistema de cultivo orgânico recuperou os teores de CBMS e NBMS e melhorou a reciclagem de nutrientes na biomassa microbiana (NBMS/NTotal). O sistema de cultivo convencional com queima (CQ) foi o menos eficiente na utilização do carbono como energia (alto qCO2), resultando em perdas de C-CO2 para a atmosfera.

Studies of the compositions of humic acids from Amazonian Dark Earth soils.

The compositions of humic acids (HAs) isolated from cultivated and forested "Terra Preta de Indio" or Amazonian Dark Earth soils (anthropogenic soils) were compared with those from adjacent non-anthropogenic soils (control soils) using elemental and thermogravimetric analyses, and a variety of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. The thermogravimetric index, which indicates the molecular thermal resistance, was greater for the anthropogenic soils than for the control soils suggesting polycyclic aromatic components in the former. The cultivated anthropogenic soils were more enriched in C and depleted in H than the anthropogenic soils under forest, as the result of the selective degradation of aliphatic structures and the possible enrichment of H-deficient condensed aromatic structures. The combination of variable amplitude cross-polarization (VACP) and chemical shift anisotropy with total suppression of spinning sidebands experiments with composite pi pulses could be used to quantify the aromaticity of the HAs from the anthropogenic soils. From principal component analysis, using the VACP spectra, it was possible to separate the different constituents of the HAs, such as the carboxylated aromatic structures, from the anthropogenic soils and plant derived compounds. The data show that the HAs from anthropogenic soils have high contents of aryl and ionisable oxygenated functional groups, and the major functionalities from adjacent control soils are oxygenated functional groups from labile structures (carbohydrates, peptides, and with evidence for lignin structures). The anthropogenic soils HAs can be considered to be more recalcitrant, and with more stable reactive functional groups which may, in part, explain their more sustainable fertility due to the organic matter contribution to the soil cation exchange capacity.

Fracionamento químico da matéria orgânica e características de ácidos húmicos de solos com horizonte a antrópico da amazônia (Terra Preta) / Chemical fractionation of organic matter and humic acid characteristic in anthropogenic dark earth soils of brazilian amazonic region

Os solos da Amazônia que possuem horizonte A antrópico (Au) apresentam elevada fertilidade natural geralmente atribuída ao teor elevado de matéria orgânica e à sua elevada reatividade. Neste estudo foram quantificadas as substâncias húmicas e caracterizados os ácidos húmicos (AH) extraídos da camada 0-20 cm de solos com horizonte Au do estado do Amazonas (Terra Preta de índio) sob floresta e cultivo agrícola. Também foram investigadas amostras de solos adjacentes sem o horizonte antrópico. A caracterização dos AH foi realizada através de análise termogravimétrica, análise da composição elementar e quantificação dos grupos funcionais (total, carboxílica e fenólica). Os horizontes A de solos antropogênicos apresentaram maior teor de carbono total, comparados aos de solos adjacentes. Entre as frações húmicas, a mais abundante foi a humina. A fração de ácidos húmicos (AH) foi a dominante das frações alcalino-solúveis nos solos estudados. Os AH dos solos antropogênicos tanto sob floresta como sob cultivo agrícola apresentaram maior grau de humificação quando comparados aos AH dos solos sem o horizonte Au. O cultivo agrícola também teve efeito na estabilidade e reatividade dos AH nos solos antropogênicos.

Amazonian dark earth soils that have anthropogenic A horizon (Au) present high natural fertility usually attributed to their high organic matter content and to their higher reactivity. In this study humic substances were quantified and the humic acids (HA) extracted from the 0-20 cm layer of Amazonian dark earth soils (Terra Preta do índio) under forest and agricultural use were characterized. Adjacent soils with no Au horizon were also investigated. The HA were characterized through the thermogravimetric analysis, elemental composition analysis and characterization of functional groups (total, carboxylic, and phenolic). The A horizon of the anthropogenic soils presented higher total carbon level compared to adjacent soils. Among the humic fractions, the humin was the most abundant. The humic acid fraction (HA) was the dominant among the alkaline soluble fractions. The humic acids of the anthropogenic soils, both under forest and cultivation, showed higher humification degree compared to the non-anthropogenic soils. The agricultural cultivation affected the humic acids stability and reactivity in the anthropogenic soils.