ARS | Publication request: Adaptive Management Tools for Nitrogen: Nitrogen Index, Nitrogen Trading Tool and Nitrogen Losses Environmental Assessment Package (NLEAP-GIS)

Submitted to: Soil and Water Conservation Society
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: May 7, 2009
Publication Date: July 11, 2009
Citation: Delgado, J.A., Gross, C., Lal, H., Cover, H., Fry, P., Gagliardi, P., Mckinney, S., Shaffer, M. 2009. Adaptive Management Tools for Nitrogen: Nitrogen Index, Nitrogen Trading Tool and Nitrogen Losses Environmental Assessment Package (NLEAP-GIS). Soil and Water Conservation Society.

Technical Abstract: Average nitrogen (N) use efficiencies are approximately fifty percent and can be even lower for shallower rooted systems grown on irrigated sandy soils. These low N use efficiencies need to be increased if reactive N losses to the environmental are to be reduced. Recently, USDA-NRCS identified Adaptive Management as a new approach that can help improve management decision-making. This interactive process can use simulation models to predict and evaluate agricultural system responses to management decisions and incorporates these responses into future management decision-making, creating a cycle of re-evaluation. For example, nutrient managers can use this approach to reduce the uncertainty across time during a growing season or across multiple years of management. Essentially, Adaptive Management is a monitoring system designed to help farm managers adapt management according to site-specific responses, constantly improving management and doing so more efficiently than with previous management evaluation approaches. We propose that nutrient managers need technological tools to help predict, reevaluate and adapt to field responses over time. Tools such as the Nitrogen Index, Nitrogen Trading Tool and NLEAP-GIS can be used to help nutrient managers in their Adaptive Management decision-making processes. This paper briefly describes these models and presents examples of how they can be used for Adaptive Management.