Gervasio Piñeiro

• Agricultural Engineer - PhD
• Professor at Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires- IFEVA- CONICET, and Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de la República, Uruguay

Database associated with the article: The potential of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to improve soil organic carbon in agricultural ecosystems: a meta-analytical approach

Questions Herbivores change plant communities and biogeochemical cycles by changing species composition and soil organic matter contents through different mechanisms. Our objective was to evaluate the effects of livestock removal on plant species composition and soil organic matter stocks in savannas of the Río de la Plata grasslands. Locations A...

Wet atmospheric deposition (AD) is a crucial process that determines nutrient inputs from the atmosphere to ecosystems. It consists of two distinct processes: rainout (RO) and washout (WO). RO occurs when aerosols and gases in the free troposphere are incorporated into rainwater, while WO happens when aerosols and gases present in the atmospheric b...

In this article we make comments on some methodological issues and on the general approach of the paper “Back to the future? Conservative grassland management can preserve soil health in the changing landscapes of Uruguay” by Ina Säumel, Leonardo R. Ramírez, Sarah Tietjen, Marcos Barra, and Erick Zagal, Soil 9, 425–442, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil...

In this article we make comments on some methodological issues and on the general approach of the paper “Back to the future? Conservative grassland management can preserve soil health in the changing landscapes of Uruguay” by Ina Säumel, Leonardo R. Ramírez, Sarah Tietjen, Marcos Barra, and Erick Zagal, Soil 9, 425–442, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil...

Carbon net emission is a critical aspect of the environmental footprint in agricultural systems. However, the alternatives to describe soil organic carbon (SOC) changes associated with different agricultural management practices/land uses are limited. Here we provide an overview of carbon (C) stocks of non-forested areas of Uruguay to estimate SOC...

Soil organic matter (SOM) mineralization and nitrogen (N) release are key biogeochemical processes for which the relative contribution of particulate (POM) and mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM) fractions is poorly understood. MAOM is generally considered to be a more stable fraction that contains most of the soil organic N, whereas POM is mo...

Service crops (or cover crops) play an important role in simplified agricultural systems. Service crops reduce agricultural external inputs and increase ecosystem services but their ability to mitigate nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions is still uncertain. The main objective of this study was to evaluate N2O emissions in soybean–soybean (Glycine max [L....

Toxic cyanobacterial blooms are globally increasing with negative effects on aquatic ecosystems, water use and human health. Blooms' main driving forces are eutrophication, dam construction, urban waste, replacement of natural vegetation with croplands and climate change and variability. The relative effects of each driver have not still been prope...

Este documento sintetiza los avances realizados a la fecha por los tres subgrupos: biodiversidad, aire, suelo y agua, integrada por las instituciones mencionadas, donde a partir de la definición de un marco conceptual y abordaje metodológico acordados, se identificaron indicadores para medir, ya sea de forma directa como indirecta, los impactos amb...

Abstract. The Río de la Plata Grasslands (RPG) are one of the largest areas of open ecosystems (grasslands, shrublands and savannas) in the world. Historically, these systems have experienced, and continue to experience, an enormous loss of natural habitats. Moreover, their importance has been largely invisible in comparison to forested systems. Th...

Carbon net emission is a critical aspect of the environmental footprint in agricultural systems. 16 However, the alternatives to describe soil organic carbon (SOC) changes associated with different 17 agricultural management practices/land uses are limited. Here we provide an overview of carbon (C) 18 stocks of non-forested areas of Uruguay to esti...

The establishment of tree plantations on native grasslands is expanding in Argentina and Uruguay, prometed by public incentives and, likely, by an emerging market of carbon sequestration. We assessed how this transformation affects the production of ecosystem goods and services, synthesizing preexisting and original information on their influence o...

In Latin America, atmospheric deposition is a major vector of nitrogen (N) input to urban systems. Yet, measurements of N deposition are sparse, precluding analysis of spatial patterns, temporal trends, and ecosystem impacts. Chemical transport models can be used to fill these gaps in the absence of dense measurements. Here, we evaluate the perform...

In developing countries, agriculture generally represents a large fraction of GHG emissions reported in National Inventories, and emissions are typically estimated using Tier 1 IPCC guidelines. However, field data and locally adapted simulation models can improve the accuracy of IPCC estimations. In this study we aimed to quantify anthropogenic N2O...

Combining different crops in complex spatial and temporal arrangements can increase resource use efficiency and reduce negative environmental impacts in croplands. Simulation models are useful tools to explore new management strategies and crop combinations in varied landscapes under different weather scenarios. However, models that allow simulatio...

Nitrogen (N) fertilization strategies focused on increasing nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and decreasing nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions are important for sustainable crop production. In sugarcane, however, a joint assessment of NUE, N2O emissions and yield is still required. We aimed to establish, in a subtropical sugarcane cropping system, if varia...

The Río de la Plata Grasslands (RPG) are one of the largest areas of open ecosystems (grasslands, shrublands and savannas) in the world. Historically these systems have experienced, and continue to experience, an enormous loss of natural habitats. Moreover, their importance has been largely invisible in comparison to forested systems. The remaining...

Questions How is plant biomass, composition and diversity in secondary grasslands affected by tree invasion? How do light conditions generated by invasive trees and soil legacy, affect grassland’s structure and functioning? Which mechanism is more important? Location Inland Pampa, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Methods We established a long-term manipu...

AimsComparing different winter legume species by plant traits that determine their contributions to ecosystems as service crops. Since root biomass determines soil organic matter formation and biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) increases soil organic nitrogen stock, those plant traits are more suitable than shoot biomass to select service crops.Met...

Soil organic carbon formation remains poorly understood despite its importance for human livelihoods. Uncertainties remain for the relative contributions of aboveground, root, and rhizodeposition inputs to particulate (POC) and mineral-associated (MAOC) organic carbon fractions. Combining a novel framework with isotope tracer studies, we quantified...

List> • Current intensification trends in the Rio de la Plata need urgent re-direction. •Integrated crop-livestock systems reconcile food production with ecosystem services. •Case studies validate recoupling as a sustainable way to ecological intensification. The Rio de la Plata region comprises central Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil....

Understanding the drivers of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is one of the most critical global environmental challenges to mitigate the increasing global temperature. Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions are highly variable in space and time and are controlled by multiple proximal drivers, that is, those that affect N2O emissions directly and in short tim...

Agroecology promises a third way between common global agriculture tradeoffs such as food production and nature conservation, environmental sustainability and ecosystem services. However, most successful examples of mainstreaming agroecology come from smallholder, family agriculture, that represents only about 30% of the world agricultural area. Ma...

RESUMEN. Conocer la estructura y el funcionamiento de la fracción subterránea de la vegetación es fundamental para comprender numerosos procesos que ocurren en distintos niveles de organización. Sin embargo, dicha fracción fue menos estudiada que su contraparte aérea, principalmente por el gran esfuerzo que demanda muestrearla a campo y procesarla...

Atmospheric deposition (AD) is the transfer of soluble ions found in the atmosphere to the earth's surface by sedimentation (dry deposition or by their inclusion or solution in raindrops (wet deposition, WAD). In this way, AD links the atmosphere with terrestrial ecosystems, being a key part of biogeochemical cycles. Although numerous investigation...

This letter is in press, together with a response by Viglizzo et al. to our comments relating to their original paper. The 3 of them are better interpreted as a set.

Capture of radiation by crop canopies drives growth rate, grain set, and yield. Since the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by green area (fAPARg) correlates with normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), remote sensors have been used to monitor vegetation. With a 10‐m spatial resolution and 5‐d revisiting time, the rece...

¿Por qué los impactos ambientales de la agricultura de granos de Argentina siguen un camino tan distintos al de otros "graneros" del mundo como los de Europa, Norteamérica o Asia? ¿Que caminos siguen los sistemas agrícolas cuando sus sociedades pasan de la subsistencia a al desarrollo industrial o agroexportador? Pueden ver esta presentacion aqui h...

Amazonia is under threat. Biodiversity and redundancy loss in the Amazon biome severely limits the long-term provision of key ecosystem services in diverse spatial scales (local, regional, and global). Resilience thinking attempts to understand the mechanisms that ensure a system’s capacity to recover in the face of external pressures, trauma, or d...

Amazonia is under threat. Biodiversity and redundancy loss in the Amazon biome severely limits the long-term provision of key ecosystem services in diverse spatial scales (local, regional, and global). Resilience thinking attempts to understand the mechanisms that ensure a system's capacity to recover in the face of external pressures, trauma, or d...

Soil moisture, and hence precipitation, exerts a dominant control on net primary productivity (NPP; the rate of carbon accumulation by autotrophs) in semiarid to subhumid ecosystems, such as grasslands and shrublands. At the global scale, mean annual precipitation has been shown to account for >50% of the variance in aboveground net primary product...

Despite the importance of long-term atmospheric deposition of ions for vegetation productivity and biogeochemistry, southern South America lacks long-term deposition records. We report a 6-year-long record of atmospheric deposition measurements of Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Cl⁻, SO4²⁻, NO3⁻ and NH4⁺ in the plains of southern South America, which encompas...

Nitrous oxide (N2O), a main greenhouse gas that contributes to ozone layer depletion, is released from soils. Even when it has been argued that agriculture is the main cause of its increase in the atmosphere, natural ecosystems are also an important source of N2O. However, the impacts of human activities on N2O emissions through biodiversity loss o...

Soils hold the largest pool of organic carbon (C) on Earth; yet, soil organic carbon (SOC) reservoirs are not well represented in climate change mitigation strategies because our database for ecosystems where human impacts are minimal is still fragmentary. Here, we provide a tool for generating a global baseline of SOC stocks. We used partial least...

Agricultural soils are the largest single source of N2O emissions globally. However, soils left uncultivated would still release N2O. Distinguishing anthropogenic from natural emissions (i.e., background emissions) in crops is important if we want to assess the net effect of human activity. This study aimed to characterize N2O emissions from cropla...

Rio de la Plata natural grasslands (RPG) encompass an extense area including part of Argentina, Uruguay and South of Brasil where livestock production is practised among other activities. Extensive improvements is a common management practice that allows to increase productivity and forage quality. It involves legume intersowing accompanied with ph...

Los cultivos de servicios (CS) pueden aumentar la materia orgánica del suelo (MOS) que presentan los agroecosistemas actuales. Nuestro objetivo fue evaluar si los cambios que ocurren en la MOS se deben a un aumento en la formación de Cnuevo por humificación; o a una disminución en la descomposición del Cviejo (formado previo al experimento). A su v...

The area devoted to Silvopastoral systems is increasing worldwide due to its complementary production of beef and wood. Understanding the competition between trees and grasses is critical to identify potential trade-offs in plant production. This article had three objectives: (1) to estimate the seasonal variation of gatton panic (Megathyrsus maxim...

Ecosystem services (ES) have become a key concept in the assessment of natural resources, as a way to connect human well-being and ecosystems degradation. However, ES quantification is considered a basic problem because provision varies considerably as a result of land use change and site-specific characteristics (i.e. climate, soil, topography, an...

Silvopastoral systems (SPS) provide a wide range of non-provisioning ecosystem services including carbon (C) sequestration. Well-managed SPS outperform both grasslands/pastures and forests in terms of C by increasing soil and biomass C storage. In this Chapter, C sequestration information from native forests and tree plantations under silvopastoral...

Soil organic matter (SOM) anchors global terrestrial productivity and food and fiber supply. SOM retains water and soil nutrients and stores more global carbon than do plants and the atmosphere combined. SOM is also decomposed by microbes, returning CO2, a greenhouse gas, to the atmosphere. Unfortunately, soil carbon stocks have been widely lost or...

Sensitivity analyses (SAs) identify how an output variable of a model is modified by changes in the input variables. These analyses are a good way for assessing the performance of probabilistic models, like Bayesian Networks (BN). However, there are several commonly used SAs in BN literature, and formal comparisons about their outcomes are scarce....

Variation in aboveground net primary production (ANPP) is usually studied across wide environmental gradients focusing on spatial averages of zonal natural communities. We studied the spatial and temporal variation of ANPP of upland sown pastures and lowland natural grasslands across a narrow gradient of precipitation and temperature. The Flooding...

Background and aimsAlthough numerous studies have quantified the effects of land-use changes on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks, few have examined simultaneously the weight of carbon (C) inputs vs. outputs in shaping these changes. We quantified the relative importance of soil C inputs and outputs in determining SOC changes following the conversio...

Land use change affects soil organic carbon (SOC) and generates CO2 emissions. Moreover, SOC depletion entails degradation of soil functions that support ecosystem services. Large areas covered by dry forests have been cleared in the Semiarid Chaco Region of Argentina for cropping expansion. However, deforestation impacts on the SOC stock and its d...

Los niveles de materia orgánica del suelo (MOS) están disminuyendo en los esquemas de agricultura continua con baja diversidad de cultivos y alta frecuencia de monocultivo de soja. La siembra de cultivos de cobertura (CC) podría aumentar la MOS por medio de la reducción de las pérdidas por erosión y/o por cambios en la humificación o descomposición...

Research networks provide a framework for review, synthesis and systematic testing of theories by multiple scientists across international borders critical for addressing global-scale issues. In 2012, a GHG research network referred to as MAGGnet (Managing Agricultural Greenhouse Gases Network) was established within the Croplands Research Group of...

Research networks provide a framework for review, synthesis and systematic testing of theories by multiple scientists across international borders critical for addressing global-scale issues. In 2012, a GHG research network referred to as MAGGnet (Managing Agricultural Greenhouse Gases Network) was established within the Croplands Research Group of...

Research networks provide a framework for review, synthesis and systematic testing of theories by multiple scientists across international borders critical for addressing global-scale issues. In 2012, a GHG research network referred to as MAGGnet (Managing Agricultural Greenhouse Gases Network) was established within the Croplands Research Group of...

Research networks provide a framework for review, synthesis and systematic testing of theories by multiple scientists across international borders critical for addressing global-scale issues. In 2012, a GHG research network referred to as MAGGnet (Managing Agricultural Greenhouse Gases Network) was established within the Croplands Research Group of...

Carbon gains are a key aspect of ecosystem functioning since they represent the energy available for upper trophic levels. Carbon gains (or primary production) are strongly correlated with other ecosystem attributes such as secondary production and they are also the support for the provision of many ecosystem services. Given the documented dependen...

In this study, the total annual and theoretical emission of methane (CH,) was estimated for cattle subjected to three winter fattening systems used in Argentina. These were extensive, semi-intensive and intensive fattening systems. The estimated annual emission was expressed as animal, live weight, cattle area and surface area used. The crude energ...

This book contains 31 chapters, grouped into 7 parts, which provides a link between the complexity of the scientific knowledge on soil carbon, and how this knowledge can be applied for multiple benefits, and the complexity of the policy and practice arenas where soil and land management impact many sectors: environment, farming, energy, water, econ...

In March 2013, 40 leading experts from across the world gathered at a workshop, hosted by the European Commission, Directorate General Joint Research Centre, Italy, to discuss the multiple benefits of soil carbon as part of a Rapid Assessment Process (RAP) project commissioned by SCOPE (Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment). This col...

Tradicionalmente los cultivos son sembrados para ser cosechados. Sin embargo, en los últimos años la siembra de cultivos para otros fines ha cobrado especial relevancia. Los cultivos empiezan a ser sembrados con objetivos variados que en general se pueden asociar a un servicio ecosistémico (SE) deteriorado, como ser: la protección contra la erosión...

En ecosistemas agrícolas, los cultivos de cobertura con leguminosas (CCL) permiten aumentar el N y el C de la materia orgánica del suelo (MOS). En general se asume que, cuanto mayor es la producción de biomasa aérea (BA), mayores son los aportes de N y C al suelo. Sin embargo, esto presupone que los CCL no presentan variabilidad en el % de N que ob...

La deposición sobre la superficie terrestre de los elementos que se encuentran suspendidos en la atmósfera se denomina deposición atmosférica (DA). Las DA incluyen solamente la deposición de elementos en forma de iones solubles, los cuales se pueden depositar disueltos en agua de lluvia (DA húmeda) o se depositan por su propio peso (DA seca) (Schle...

Assessing forage quantity and quality through remote sensing can facilitate grassland and pasture management. However, the high spatial and temporal variability of canopy conditions may limit the predictive accuracy of models based on reflectance measurements. The objective of this work was to develop this type of models, and to challenge their cap...

An important goal of conservation biology is the maintenance of ecosystem processes. Incorporating quantitative measurements of ecosystem functions into conser-vation practice is important given that it provides not only proxies for biodiversity patterns, but also new tools and criteria for management. In the satellite era, the translation of spect...

The replacement of native vegetation by pastures or tree plantations is increasing worldwide. Contradictory effects of these land use transitions on the direction of changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks, quality, and vertical distribution have been reported, which could be explained by the characteristics of the new or prior vegetation, time...

La introducción de cultivos de cobertura (CC) en las rotaciones permite proteger y mejorar la calidad del suelo. Sin embargo, esta práctica frecuentemente no se adopta debido a que limita la acumulación de agua en el período de barbecho (PB) y como consecuencia puede disminuir el rendimiento del cultivo posterior. Sin embargo, la variación ambienta...

Afforestation, the conversion of unforested lands to forests, is a tool for sequestering anthropogenic carbon dioxide into plant biomass. However, in addition to altering biomass, afforestation can have substantial effects on soil organic carbon (SOC) pools, some of which have much longer turnover times than plant biomass. An increasing body of evi...

Background/Question/Methods Litter and soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition models are often based on first-order exponential decay functions of the type (Ct= Co.e-kt). The decomposition or decay factor k is assumed constant over time, implying that the same proportion of the litter or SOM pool is decomposed per unit time throughout the decomp...

Moisture stress and high temperatures during the summer are major factors limiting white clover (Trifolium repens L.) productivity in Uruguay. Our objective was to determine the influence of irrigation and defoliation on the growth of white clover. Two white clover cultivars were sown with tall fescue [Schedonorus arundinaceus (Schreb.) Dumort = Lo...

Question: How does above-ground net primary production (ANPP) differ (estimated from remotely sensed data) among vegetation units in sub-humid temperate grasslands? Location: Centre-north Uruguay. Methods: A vegetation map of the study area was generated from LANDSAT imagery and the landscape configuration described. The functional heterogeneity of...

Los pastizales son uno de los ecosistemas terrestres que más modificaciones han sufrido. Los cambios en el uso del suelo han tenido un gran impacto sobre los depósitos y flujos de C. Comprender el impacto de los cambios en uso y cobertura del suelo es crítico a la hora de evaluar el potencial de los pastizales de retener C. En este trabajo analizam...

Cited By (since 1996):22, Export Date: 2 July 2013, Source: Scopus

1] We evaluated the effects of grazing on C and N belowground pools by comparing 15 grazing-exclosure pairs across the Río de la Plata grasslands of Uruguay and Argentina. We measured C and N pools of belowground biomass, particulate organic matter (POM), and the mineral associated organic matter (MAOM) in the top meter of the soil. Grazing exclusi...

Although various studies have shown that corn ethanol reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by displacing fossil fuel use, many of these studies fail to include how land-use history affects the net carbon balance through changes in soil carbon content. We evaluated the effectiveness and economic value of corn and cellulosic ethanol production for...

Although various studies have shown that corn ethanol reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by displacing fossil fuel use, many of these studies fail to include how land-use history affects the net carbon balance through changes in soil carbon content. We evaluated the effectiveness and economic value of corn and cellulosic ethanol production for...

Soil microbes are highly diverse and control most soil biogeochemical reactions. We examined how microbial functional genes and biogeochemical pools responded to the altered chemical inputs accompanying land use change. We examined paired native grasslands and adjacent Eucalyptus plantations (previously grassland) in Uruguay, a region that lacked f...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) models often rely on analytical solutions derived from litter bag experiments in which C losses follow first-order kinetics of the type (Ct= Co . e-kt). In this model, k is the decomposition or decay factor and is considered constant over time. Several authors pointed out that one-pool exponential SOC models fail to reprod...

A common and simple approach to evaluate models is to regress predicted vs. observed values (or vice versa) and compare slope and intercept parameters against the 1:1 line. However, based on a review of the literature it seems to be no consensus on which variable (predicted or observed) should be placed in each axis. Although some researchers think...

1] Afforestation of natural grasslands with fast-growing pine and eucalyptus species is increasing globally, but little is known about its effect on ecosystems and watersheds and, ultimately, the quality of water resources. To investigate the biogeochemical and hydrological consequences of this land use change, we sampled stream water in paired wat...

El uso de la teledetección para la clasificación de ecosistemas sigue fundamentándose mayoritariamente en atributos puramente estructurales, obviando a menudo propiedades funcionales clave relacionadas con los flujos de materia y energía. Aquí mostramos la utilidad de clasificaciones basadas en variables funcionales para la caracterización de ecosi...