TY - JOUR A1 - Steidl, Jörg A1 - Lischeid, Gunnar A1 - Engelke, Clemens A1 - Koch, Franka T1 - The curse of the past BT - What can tile drain effluent tell us about arable field management? JF - Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment N2 - One challenge for modern agricultural management schemes is the reduction of harmful effects on the envi-ronment, e.g. in terms of the emission of nutrients. Sampling the effluent of tile drains is a very efficient way to sample seepage water from larger areas directly underneath the main rooting zone. Time series of solute con-centration in tile drains can be linked to agricultural management data and thus indicate the efficacy of individual management measures. To that end, the weekly runoff and solute concentration were determined in long-term measurement campaigns at 25 outlets of artificial tile drains at 19 various arable fields in the German federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The study sites were distributed within a 23,000 km(2) region and were deemed representative of intense arable land use. In addition, comprehensive meteorological and man-agement data were provided. To disentangle the different effects, monitoring data were subjected to a principal component analysis. Loadings on the prevailing principal components and spatial and temporal patterns of the component scores were considered indicative of different processes. Principal component scores were then related to meteorological and management data via random forest modelling. Hydrological conditions and weather were identified as primary driving forces for the nutrient discharge behaviour of the drain plots, as well as the nitrogen balance. In contrast, direct effects of recent agricultural management could hardly be identified. Instead, we found clear evidence of the long-term and indirect effects of agriculture on nearly all solutes. We conclude that tile drain effluent quality primarily reflected the soil-internal mobilisation or de-mobilisation of nutrients and related solutes rather than allowing inferences to be drawn about recent individual agricultural management measures. On the other hand, principal component analysis revealed a variety of indirect and long-term effects of fertilisation on solutes other than nitrogen or phosphorus that are still widely overlooked in nutrient turnover studies. KW - Agricultural management KW - Tile drains KW - Nitrate KW - Phosphorus KW - Water KW - pollution KW - Multivariate statistics KW - Random forest modelling Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2021.107787 SN - 0167-8809 SN - 1873-2305 VL - 326 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Werner, Andrea A1 - Werner, Andreas A1 - Wieland, Ralf A1 - Kersebaum, Kurt-Christian A1 - Mirschel, Wilfried A1 - Ende, Hans-Peter A1 - Wiggering, Hubert T1 - Ex ante assessment of crop rotations focusing on energy crops using a multi-attribute decision-making method JF - Ecological indicators : integrating monitoring, assessment and management N2 - The cultivation of plants for use as energy resources is an agricultural and industrial sector with potentially synergistic benefits related to protecting the environment and generating income. Against the background of increasing land-use changes and new agricultural approaches to the production of energy crops, we present a method for identifying future-oriented crop rotations that supports both the economic and environmental components of decision-making strategies with respect to agriculture-related policy decisions (regional mission statements). The conflicting aspects of these objectives can be addressed with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a multi-attribute decision-making method that was integrated here. Three models are used to generate simulations of the defined objectives over a planning period of 30 years under the current climate scenario and provide input data for the multi-attribute assessment of several crop rotations. Based on the entire evaluation process, dimensionless global priority vectors are used to indicate how well the crop rotations meet the requirements of the defined mission statement. The method is tested in a municipality in NE Germany. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Agricultural management KW - Ex ante assessment KW - Multi-attribute decision-making KW - AHP KW - Crop rotation KW - Energy crops KW - Regional objectives KW - Indicators Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2014.03.013 SN - 1470-160X SN - 1872-7034 VL - 45 SP - 110 EP - 122 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -