Abstract
Litter decomposition and livestock excreta are two important sources for replenishing nutrients in the soil of the pastures, and their decomposition rates are affected by their quality, management practices, forage productivity, and biotic and abiotic factors. The objective of this research was to assess the effects of escalating levels of N fertilization (0, 100, 200, and 400 kg N ha−1 yr−1) on litter and fecal decomposition in an agroforestry system comprising palisadegrass [Urochloa brizantha (Hochst. Ex A. Rich.) Stapf. cv. Marandu] intercropped with hybrid eucalyptus trees [Eucalyptus urophylla × Eucalyptus tereticornis], in a two-year field trial. The experiment was set in a randomized complete block design with four treatments and three repetitions. Litter (0, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, and 256 days) and cattle excrement samples (0, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and 128 days) were incubated on the ground. For forage litter samples, the interaction between N fertilization × year was observed for the decomposition rate (k) of DM (P = 0.0014) and OM (P = 0.0094). The greatest litter OM disappearance was observed at 400 kg N fertilization ha−1 year−1 (651 g kg−1 DM at 256 days). The interaction between nitrogen fertilizer rate × incubation time, or the isolated effect of the treatment was not observed on fecal decomposition (P > 0.05). Higher levels of N fertilization associated with the rainy period resulted in faster decomposition of palisadegrass litter, however, it did not show to have a strong influence on the excreta decomposition in this agroforestry system.
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Data availability
The datasets of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Universidade Estadual do Maranhão (UEMA), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico do Maranhão (FAPEMA) (000957/2019), Fundação de Estudos Agrários Luiz de Queiroz (FEALQ), Banco da Amazônia (BASA) and the ICLF Network Association. Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) (scholarship 300634/2023-4), and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico do Maranhão (FAPEMA) (PDCTR-08834/22).
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Maria Karoline de Carvalho Rodrigues de Sousa: project administration/data sampling/ writing original draft; Luciano Cavalcante Muniz, Valéria Xavier de Oliveira Apolinário, Joaquim Bezerra Costa: Funding acquisition/administration/project manager/Supervision: José Carlos Batista Dubeux Jr, Janerson José Coelho: Writing review: Ana María Herrera-Angulo, statistical analysis. Victor Roberto Ribeiro Reis, Thaís Santos Figueiredo, Raabe Alves Souza, Erika Gonçalves Corrêa: sampling and laboratory analysis.
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Sousa, M.K.C.R., Muniz, L.C., Apolinário, V.X.O. et al. Nitrogen fertilization increased grass litter decomposition in a tropical agroforestry system. Agroforest Syst 98, 995–1008 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-024-00968-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-024-00968-x