A win-win solution: Shredded straw can enhance soil fertility and reduce ammonia pollution
Wednesday, April 22, 2020 - 11:50
in Earth & Climate
Straw incorporation—shredding and burying straw—has been widely promoted as an environmentally friendly method to increase soil organic carbon stocks and improve soil fertility. Scientists have also found crop straw incorporation could help reduce ammonia volatilization from fertilized fields, which contributes to the formation of fine particles thereby resulting in serious air pollution. Still, scientists are not clear about the long-term effects, e.g. 15 years, of crop straw incorporation approaches and rates on ammonia volatilization from calcareous soils, which are hotspots for agricultural ammonia volatilization.