METHODOLOGICAL ADVANCES IN SOIL NITROGEN TRANSFORMATIONS FOR SUGARCANE PRODUCTION

Abstract

In order to decrease the dependence of fossil fuels worldwide, sugarcane is a promising crop for biofuels production. However, social, environmental and economical issues should be considered for sustainable production of renewable fuels. Nitrogen fertilizers play a key role in sugarcane growth, increasing the yield of stalks, sugar and ethanol. However the use of N fertilizer improperly causes environmental threats such as nitrate leaching or nitrous oxide emission due to nitrification and denitrification process. Recent studies undertaken in State of Sao Paulo, the largest sugarcane producer in Brazil, showed differences in sugarcane response to N fertilizer due to soil management history, which changed the soil N mineralization and its availability to the plants. Thus seems essential quantifying the soil N supplying power in order to improve the N fertilizer management of sugarcane. The goals for this post-doc position are (i) to install an advanced laboratory that allows studying soil N transformations in sugarcane production areas, supported by the newly funded FAPESP project no 2011/14372-1; (ii) to perform soil N mineralization studies under field and laboratory conditions in sugarcane trials; (iii) to participate of other projects undertaken by the team of the main researcher and (iv) develop a wide revision paper leading with the impacts of N fertilization in sugarcane yield and in the sustainability of sugarcane ethanol production. This project will be partially supported by the regular project of funding "Soil N mineralization as predictor of sugarcane N fertilizer requirements", under supervision of Paulo Cesar Ocheuze Trivelin, from 11/01/2011 to 10/31/2013.