BNI Pasture: Biological Nitrification Inhibition

BNI Pasture is a joint research project between Ireland and New Zealand which aims to accelerate the potential of Biological Nitrification Inhibition (BNI) capacity in temperate grassland species, particularly perennial ryegrass and plantain, to reduce nitrous oxide emissions (N₂O) from ruminant production systems.

Project aim

Forage plants naturally perform BNI to a varying degree and this project aims to create new knowledge for establishing mixed swards of perennial ryegrass and plantain with elevated BNI expression.

The project will identify the genetic variation for BNI trait expression between forage species and varieties and validate the trait's expression and impacts on real-world environments using plant, soil, microbial, N₂O, and systems science.

If you can deliver something to a farmer that's already embedded in a seed that they're going to go ahead and plant in their pasture? It saves them a whole lot of effort.

Brent Barrett, AgResearch Senior Scientist

Objectives

Identifying robust BNI sources and indicators in ryegrass adapted to Ireland.
Investigating soil, nitrogen and plant species interaction effects on BNI expression in ryegrass and plantain.
Understanding the effect of BNI plant-induced changes in animal urination patterns on N₂O emissions.
Refining N₂O emission factors, FracLeach and FracGasM for BNI pasture.

Tasks

Knowledge transfer and dissemination
Identifying robust sources and indicators of BNI in perennial ryegrass
Identifying biomarkers for BNI expression and investigating soil interactions with BNI expression in ryegrass
Investigating synergies between mixed swards of perennial ryegrass and plantain to optimise BNI and reduce N₂O emissions
Understanding the effect of plantain on ruminant urination patterns and subsequent N₂O emissions
Refining N₂O emissions factors for plantain-containing pastures

Project partners

Funder

Ireland - New Zealand Joint Research Call 2023

A breathless beginning

News Article

Cracking the nitrous oxide code

Could the answer to one of farming's most problematic byproducts be found by cracking the code to Biological Nitrification Inhibition?

Learn more

Project team

Project coordinator (Ireland)	Dr Bridget Lynch
Project coordinator (New Zealand)	Dr Saman Bowatte
Task 1 lead (Ireland)	Dr Tomás Tubritt
Task 1 lead (New Zealand)	Dr Cecile De Klein
Task 2 lead	Prof Trevor Hodkinson
Task 3 lead	Dr Susanne Barth
Task 5 lead	Dr William Burchill
Task 6 lead	Dr Jiafa Luo