Long-term nutrient fertilization and the carbon balance of permanent
grassland: any evidence for sustainable intensification?

Fornara, Dario A.; Wasson, Elizabeth-Anne; Christie, Peter; Watson, Catherine J.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4975-2016

Articles | Volume 13, issue 17

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4975-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4975-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 17

Research article

|

09 Sep 2016

Research article |

| 09 Sep 2016

Long-term nutrient fertilization and the carbon balance of permanent grassland: any evidence for sustainable intensification?

Dario A. Fornara, Elizabeth-Anne Wasson, Peter Christie, and Catherine J. Watson

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Final revised paper (published on 09 Sep 2016)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 03 Jun 2016)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review: Long-term nutrient fertilization and the carbon balance of permanent grassland: any evidence for sustainable intensification?', Louis Schipper, 02 Jul 2016
- AC1: 'Response to Referee (Louis Schipper) and New Updated Version of the manuscript & Supplementary information', Dario Fornara, 05 Jul 2016
  - RC3: 'tweek to conclusions', Louis Schipper, 09 Jul 2016
    - AC2: 'Response to Reviewer 2', Dario Fornara, 19 Jul 2016
    - AC3: 'Change to conclusion section', Dario Fornara, 19 Jul 2016
RC2: 'reviewer report', Anonymous Referee #2, 08 Jul 2016
- AC4: 'Response to Reviewer 2', Dario Fornara, 19 Jul 2016

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (04 Aug 2016) by Michael Bahn

AR by Dario Fornara on behalf of the Authors (06 Aug 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (09 Aug 2016) by Michael Bahn

RR by Louis Schipper (15 Aug 2016)

ED: Publish as is (29 Aug 2016) by Michael Bahn

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Short summary

This study demonstrates that intensively managed agricultural grasslands can sequester significant amounts of carbon in soils, especially under long-term applications of cattle slurries. There is also evidence that soil carbon sequestration can contribute to offset between 9 % and 25 % of total greenhouse gas emissions associated with the management of permanent grassland. However, to make livestock-based grassland systems more sustainable, further carbon-gain efficiencies are required.