Selecting cultivars with greater biomass results in higher yields and greater carbon sequestration. Storage of atmospheric carbon in the plant/soil pool contributes not only to food security but also to mitigating climate change and other agroecological benefits. The objective of this study was to determine: (1) grain, residue, and root biomass yields; (2) harvest indexes; (3) residue-to-product ratio; (4) root-to-shoot ratio; (5) biomass carbon and nitrogen contents; and (6) C:N ratios for two new and two old winter wheat cultivars. The greatest yield difference was found between old Srpanjka (the lowest) and new Kraljica (the highest) cultivar where grain, residue, root, and total biomass yield was higher by 38%, 91%, 71%, and 64%, respectively. Total biomass was composed of 40–47% grain, 10–11% roots, 32–36% stems + leaves, 9–11% chaff, and 1–2% spindle. The range of HI was 0.45–0.53, RPR 0.91–1.25, and R:S ratio 0.12–0.13. For all cultivars, positive carbon and negative nitrogen balance within the plant pool was determined. Still, root biomass and rhizodeposition carbon remain open questions for a better understanding of agroecosystems’ C dynamics.

Sustainable management of agricultural resources is needed to meet people’s increasing demands for food, fiber and energy while maintaining the quality of the environment and protecting natural resources. With the rapid growth of agriculture and the mechanization of farming, the agricultural sector has become one of the main contributors to the increase in CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases in the world. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect, dependence and correlations of CO2 in soil with native vegetation (presence/absence, corn yield) and climatic conditions (soil temperature and moisture) during three years of measurements under different management practices in a classical conventional agroecosystem. This research contains four different treatments: control treatment (CT), dolomite/organic fertilization (DOL/OF), mineral fertilization (MF) and black fallow (BF). During the investigated period, the average overall C-CO2 flux ranged from 7.98 kg ha−1 day−1 on bare soil to 16.26 kg ha−1 day−1 on soil treated with mineral fertilization. No statistically significant difference was observed among different fertilization treatments, except in 2013 and 2015 when comparing different fertilization treatments to bare soil. In all three years, there was a positive correlation between average C-CO2 fluxes and soil temperature. Additionally, in 2013 and 2017, there was a positive correlation between average C-CO2 fluxes and soil moisture, while a negative correlation was observed in 2015. Obtained values of crop yield ranged from 0.89 t ha−1 in the control treatment (in 2015) to 14.81 t ha−1 in the treatment with mineral fertilization (in 2017). Growing global concern about the effects of climate change calls for intensive research on the carbon cycle, and these results will contribute to the understanding of carbon transformation in different crops and soil management practices.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether or not fiscal policy can stimulate the economic activity in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. For this purpose, the time-series data are collected in the period 2008-2014. The results suggest that a unit increase in revenue leads to a reduction in the gross domestic product in the long-run. Budgetary expenditures are found to stimulate gross domestic product only in initial period. However, results in the long-run are found to be negligible. Moreover, impulse-response function indicates there are many other determinants of gross domestic product in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina besides budgetary expenditures. Therefore, the impact of fiscal policy on economic growth is just partial. Hence, development policy based on budgetary expenditures will lead to only small increase in economic output.

Biological carbon sequestration is considered an important strategy to mitigate climate change. The energy crop Miscanthus × giganteus has great sequestration potential. The objective of this study was to determine: a) the dry matter yield and carbon content in aboveground and belowground biomass; b) the total carbon balance in the plant and soil pool. The study was conducted in continental Croatia (N 45°51′01.32″; E 16°10′35.85″) by the destructive harvesting of five-year-old Miscanthus × giganteus stands established by rhizomes (MxgR) and seedlings (MxgS) in the spring of 2021. The soil sampling was conducted in 2016 and 2022. The average amount of carbon in the aboveground biomass of MxgR and MxgS is 11.51 t/ha and 9.87 t/ha, respectively, and in the belowground biomass it is 13.18 t/ha and 14.90 t/ha, respectively. The carbon balance in the plant pool of MxgR is three times lower (1.67 t/ha) than that in the plant pool of MxgS (5.03 t/ha). The total soil carbon content increased by 8.7 t/ha under MxgR and by 14.8 t/ha under MxgS during 2016–2022. Therefore, under the studied agroecological conditions, seedlings should be preferred over rhizomes in the selection of planting material. The obtained data represent valuable input data for sequestration modeling.

Soil respiration is a significant contributor to the global emissions of CO2 and is governed by many soil factors. Reliable estimates of CO2 emission on different scales (e.g., field, regional level) are hard to obtain due to the expressed spatial and temporal variability of the CO2 flux. This study aims to investigate the spatial variability of CO2 flux and soil properties in soybean cropland on Fluvisols (Croatia). The field measurements and soil samples were taken in a regular sampling grid (2 × 2 m) with 44 points in total and the spatial variability was assessed using the kriging and cokriging techniques. The soil CO2 flux showed relatively high spatial heterogeneity, ranging from 0.03 mg/m2s to 0.40 mg/m2s. The soil organic matter content (SOM), soil water content (SWC), and soil temperature (ST) had the lower variability ranging from 2.09% to 2.52%, from 27.7% to 46.8%, and from 13.7 °C to 18.2 °C, respectively. The spatial dependence was high for CO2 flux and ST, moderate for SOM, and low for SWC. The incorporation of the auxiliary variables increased the precision of the estimations for CO2 flux, SOM, and SWC. Kriging was the most accurate method for the spatial prediction of ST. The SWC was associated as the most important factor of the CO2 fluxes, indicated by their significant negative correlation, and the highest increase of the prediction precision during spatial modeling. However, more robust co-variates should be incorporated in future models to further increase the precision.

<p>In order to mitigate climate change and reduce the anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the Kyoto protocol has been adopted in 1997 and the Paris Agreement entered into force in 2016. The Paris Agreement have ratified 190 out of 197 Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Croatia is one of them as well. Each Party has obliged regularly to submit the national inventory report (NIR) providing the information on the national anthropogenic GHG emissions by sources and removals by sinks to the UNFCCC. Reporting under the NIR is divided into six categories / sectors, and one of them is land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector, where an issue of uncertainty estimates on carbon emissions and removals occurs. As soil respiration represents the second-largest terrestrial carbon flux, the national studies on soil respiration can reduce the uncertainty and improve the estimation of country-level carbon fluxes. Due to the omission of national data, the members of the University of Zagreb Faculty of Agriculture, Department of General Agronomy have started to study soil respiration rates in 2012, and since then many different studies on soil respiration under different agricultural land uses (i.e. annual crops, energy crop and vineyard), management practices (i.e. tillage and fertilization) and climate conditions (i.e. continental and mediterranean) in Croatia have been conducted. The obtained site specific results on field measurements of soil carbon dioxide concentrations by <em>in situ</em> closed static chamber method will be presented in this paper.</p>

Nitrogen oxides play a major role in atmospheric chemistry, like primary pollutants, in the formation of secondary air pollutants or greenhouse gases (GHGs). This research study was conducted in the Western Pannonian sub-region of Croatia with the aim to determine the suitability of our internally developed passive sampler and static chamber method for N-NO2 concentration measurement. The aim was also to determine the impact of mineral soil fertilization on the N-NO2 flux during triticale vegetation. The research showed that the method used was suitable. Average daily N-NO2 flux ranged from 2.78 to 5.09 mg ha−1 day−1 depending on phenophase and treatment. Statistically significant differences in N-NO2 flux between two monitored treatments (300 kg N ha−1 and 0 kg N ha−1) were not observed, nor between two investigated phenophases.

120 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Obicna tablica"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:107%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} The anthropogenic emission of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide is bringing about major changes to the global environment. Although most of the anthropogenic emissions originate from industrial processes, agriculture is responsible for a significant portion of the greenhouse gases produced by humans worldwide. The impact of agriculture has become a key issue, considering that the main greenhouse gases are those related to carbon and nitrogen global cycles. This paper presents a review of the scientific literature meant to provide the impact of human management through fertilizers use on CO 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 O emissions. The influence of organic and mineral fertilization on greenhouse gas emissions is analyzed, and usage of organic amendments showed a wise potential for protecting the environment and to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

The agricultural sector is a source of greenhouse gas emissions that directly affect the global problem of climate change and contribute approximately 11% in total greenhouse gas emissions in the world and in Croatia too. Irregular and irresponsible agricultural practices, such as excessive tillage and improper fertilization often lead to soil carbon loss and increased carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. This field study provides results how agricultural practices affect carbon dioxide emissions from soil, carbon sequestration and soil quality during the cultivation of winter wheat. The field experiment was conducted in a temperate continental climate on distric Stagnosol. Four investigated treatments were: organic fertilization, mineral fertilization, control treatment and black fallow. The lowest carbon dioxide emission was recorded on bare soil and the highest on organic fertilization treatment. The application of manure, mineral fertilizers and calcification rendered significant effect on some soil chemical characteristics and daily carbon dioxide flux.

Few works have been carried out on the coupled impacts of different management practices and tractor traffic on soil properties and degradation in vineyards, grape productivity and must quality. The influence of different tillage practices (conventional tillage—CT; grass coverage in a given year—INV‐GC; tillage in a given year—INV‐T) and continuous grass coverage (CGC) on bulk density (BD), soil water content (SWC), CO2 emissions, grape yield and must quality have been investigated in a vineyard in Zagreb, Croatia. During 2017, soil properties were analysed in the 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm layers after 3, 6 and 11 tractor traffic passes. The results showed that tractor traffic increased the BD in the CGC, INV‐GC and INV‐T treatments. The BD at the 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm depths was significantly higher in CGC than in CT. During the wet year of 2017, CT and INV‐T had significantly higher SWCs than did CGC and INV‐GC. The CO2 emissions under different management practices were INV‐T (120.3 CO2 ha−1 yr−1) > CGC (111.4 CO2 ha−1 yr−1) > INV‐GC (71.7 CO2 ha−1 yr−1) > CT (51.5 kg CO2 ha−1 yr−1). The effects of soil management on must quality and grape composition measurements were also detected. Grape yield was as follows: CT (5.37 kg vine−1) > INV‐GC (4.43 kg vine−1) > CGC (4.06 kg vine−1) > INV‐T (3.87 kg vine−1). Treatments had a significant impact only on pruning weight, pH value and free amino nitrogen (FAN), whereas no significant differences were found in the cluster number per vine, mean cluster weight, sugar content and titratable acids.