n, p, and k budgets and changes in selected topsoil nutrients over 10 years in a long-term experiment with conventional and organic crop rotations

This study presents soil system budgets of N, P and K in six contrasting cropping systems during 10 years of a long-term experiment in southeast Norway. The experiment included systems with arable cash-cropping and with mixed arable-dairy cropping (cash- and fodder crops), with organic and conventional management represented in both groups. All major nutrient inputs and outputs were measured or estimated. State of the art conventional cash-cropping appeared to be balanced in terms of N, whereas conventional mixed cropping had an N surplus. By contrast, less up to date conventional arable cash-cropping and all the organic systems showed indications of soil organic N depletion (negative N budgets). All the organic systems showed that mining of the soil P and K content occurs, whereas the conventional systems all had P and K surpluses. The results corresponded well with measured differences between systems in terms of ignition loss, P-AL, K-AL and K-HNO3 measured in 2009. This study shows that a fertile soil may be exposed to substantial mining of N, P and K over many years before it is detectable by traditional analyses, and that field nutrient budgeting is a feasible, but data-demanding, approach to detect such misbalances at an early stage.