Erosión y desertificación.-Desertification, Ecological and N, P, K, Mg fertilization changes on crop production in Hungary

Abstract

ABSTRACT Today, all soils and ecosystems in the World and Europe are facing similar threats in particular the impacts of global climate change the effects of land-use changes. So, fragile arid and semi-arid areas are in urgent need to understand of integrated conservation and restoration approaches that can contribute significantly to prevent and reduce the widespread on-going land and biodiversity degradation, desertification processes, such as erosion, flooding, overgrazing, drought, forestfire and salinization. This paper will establish promising integrated climate-soil-fertilization-crop system models taking into account the impact of combined drivers on soil processes, e.g. climate and fertilization changes in land use and management conservation based on a close participation of scientists with stakeholder groups in the degradation and desertification hotspots, that can be transferred across a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. Generally, among natural catastrophes, droughts and floods cause the greatest problems in field crop production. The droughts and the floods that were experienced in Hungary in the early 1980’s have drawn renewed attention to the analyses of these problems. New research on climate change-soilplant systems are focused on yield and yield quality. This paper reports the climate change (rainfall) x soil (acidic sandy brown forest) x mineral N-, P-, K-, Mg fertilisation x plant interactions on rye (Secale cereale L.), on potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) and on winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) yields in a long term field experiment set up at Nyírlugos in north-eastern Hungary under temperate climate conditions in 1962. Results are summarised from 1962 to 1990. Main conclusions were as follows: 1. Rye: a., Experimental years were characterised by frequent extremes of precipitation variabilities and changes. b., By an average year, at a satisfactory fertilisation level (N: 90 kg ha-1 and NP, NK, NPK, NPKMg combinations) the maximum yield reached 3.8 t ha-1. But yield was decreased by 17% and by 52% due to drought and excess rainfall respectively. Negative effects (drought, excess rainfall) were diminished by 20-25% with Mg treatments. c., Correlation between rye yields and precipitation during vegetation seasons showed that optimum yield (4.0 t ha-1) will develop in the 430-470 mm range. 2. Potato: a., Trial years were estimated by recurrent extremes of climate. b., In vegetation seasons poor in rainfall yield safety in potato cannot be secured by fertilisation (N, NP, NK, NPK, NPKMg) alone. Under this weather condition yield was decreased by 35%. c., Optimum yields range between 17-21 t ha-1 at 280-350 mm. 3. Winter wheat: a., Climate was manifested mainly by precipitation using average, drought, dry and rainy levels. b., Yields from drought year effects with N, NP and NK combinations were diminished to 48% and with NPK and NPKMg treatments fell to 51%. c., Optimum yields (3.5-4.0 t ha-1) were developed at 450-500 mm. This paper summarises quantified results of rye, potato and winter wheat research with regarding to interaction effects and relationships between climate (rainfall)-mineral nutrition-crop production changes in Hungary during a long term field experiment to agricultural sustainability.