Approximately 70% of Brazilian agriculture is based on the cultivation of highly weathered soils located in tropical and subtropical savannah areas, where the zero or no tillage (ZT) system is now considered as the best alternative to the traditional conventional tillage (CT). During the period 1999-2004 the Agrobiology Centre of Embrapa implemented a research program using nuclear and related techniques to study the main processes involved in the dynamics and cycling of N for predominant crop rotations grown at five locations under ZT in comparison to CT, on acidic savannah soils of both southern and Cerrado regions of Brazil. The most relevant results of these studies were: (1) The soybean crop derived a high proportion of its N (over 80%) from biological nitrogen fixation (BNF). The BNF system is so efficient that attempts to increase grain yields by addition of N fertilizer are hardly ever successful as long as the plants have been effectively inoculated with the recommended Bradyrhizobium strains. (2) The N fertilizer use efficiency by the maize crop fertilized with 80 to 90 kg N ha~(-1) varied from 40 to 60%. (3). A maximum 10% of N-urea applied broadcast over the soil surface (40 kg N ha~(-1)) in a maize crop was lost via NH_3 volatilization, with the highest values under ZT. (4) The inclusion of green manure legumes (GMLs) such as lupin and vetch, which are highly efficient in BNF was essential to promote a positive soil N balance in crop rotations and to increase the stock of soil organic C. (5) Less than 900 g N-N_2O ha~(-1) yr~(-1) were lost from the soil surface, and the highest values were found under CT. (6) Even thought the contribution of BNF to the Brazilian soybean crop is high (over 80%), the accurate assessment of this input to the soil N balance still remain unclear due to methodological problems using the leaf labeling technique to estimate residual below-ground N. Results obtained so far suggest that these methodological issues need to be overcome before these estimates can be considered as reliable. These results demonstrate the enormous potential impact of BNF in legumes such as soybean and green manures and their management under ZT and CT on the N cycling processes and overall C and N stocks in tropical acid savannah soils, thus contributing to the productivity and sustainability of the agricultural production systems.
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