Cover crops support ecological intensification of arable cropping systems

Wittwer, Raphaël; Dorn, Brigitte; Jossi, W.; Heijden, Marcel G. A. van der

doi:10.1038/srep41911

Cited by 220 publications

(175 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…In tilled treatments, the positive effect of cover crop cultivation was less pronounced, though visible when looking at the whole three year period. This agrees with other studies showing a more important role of cover crops with reduction of tillage intensity (Abdollahi and Munkholm, 2014;Wittwer et al, 2017). Many factors can explain the beneficial effect of cover crops for the next crop; among these are the reduction of weed pressure, improvement of soil fertility and soil quality, and nutrient release during decomposition (Abdollahi and Munkholm, 2014;Fageria et al, 2005;Mat Hassan et al, 2013;ThorupKristensen et al, 2003).…”

Section: Effect On the Following Wheat Cropsupporting

confidence: 81%

Importance of cover crops in alleviating negative effects of reduced soil tillage and promoting soil fertility in a winter wheat cropping system

Büchi

Wendling

Amossé

et al. 2018

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

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A B S T R A C TReduction of soil tillage is of paramount importance for agricultural soil preservation. However, it is often accompanied by yield reduction and weed management problems. In this perspective, cover crops could play an important role to alleviate weed infestation and sustain yield. In this study, the results from a three-year experiment of cover crop cultivation in different soil tillage treatments is presented, together with results from DayCent simulations on the long term evolution of soil organic carbon and total nitrogen. Eight cover crop treatments were set up as subtreatments in a long term experiment in Switzerland. Cover crops were cultivated for a short two-month period between two winter wheats. Substantial differences in cover crop growth were observed depending on cover crop species. In all tillage treatments, high cover crop biomass production allowed to supress weed biomass compared to the no cover crop control. Wheat grain yield was higher in the minimum tillage than in the plough treatment. In the no till treatment, wheat yield was notably low, except in the field pea treatments, where wheat yield reached values similar to that observed in the plough and minimum tillage treatments. In addition, these differences in biomass production translated into important differences in nutrient inputs, and even in soil nutrient concentration in some cases. Long term simulations showed that cover crop cultivation could increase drastically soil organic carbon and total nitrogen, especially in reduced tillage treatments. Altogether, these results demonstrated that the presence of a well-developed cover crop, even for only two months, allows to sustain wheat yield in a no till treatment. It impacts also soil fertility and nutrient cycling. This study shows that an accurate use and management of cover crops, in interaction with tillage reduction, could maintain yield and improve soil fertility in the long term.

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Section: Effect On the Following Wheat Cropsupporting

confidence: 81%

Importance of cover crops in alleviating negative effects of reduced soil tillage and promoting soil fertility in a winter wheat cropping system

Büchi

Wendling

Amossé

et al. 2018

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

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“…The first experiment started in summer 2009 (FAST I) and the second in summer 2010 (FAST II), following a staggered start design. Prior to 2009 the site was an organically managed grassland (Wittwer et al., ). The results presented in this paper focus on samples taken from the second trial (FAST II).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Blocks were arranged within the field to account for potential edaphic spatial variation within the field site. (Wittwer et al, 2017). The results presented in this paper focus on samples taken from the second trial (FAST II).…”

Section: Study Site and Sample Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking diversity, synchrony and stability in soil microbial communities

et al. 2018

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It is becoming well‐established that plant diversity is instrumental in stabilizing the temporal functioning of ecosystems through population dynamics and the so‐called insurance or portfolio effect. However, it remains unclear whether diversity–stability relationships and the role of population dynamics in soil microbial communities parallel those in plant communities. Our study took place in a long‐term land management experiment with and without perturbation to the soil ecosystem by tilling. We assessed the impacts of the soil perturbation on the diversity, synchrony and stability relationships in soil fungal and bacterial communities. We found that the perturbation to the soil ecosystem not only reduced the abundance and richness of the fungal community, but it also reduced the temporal stability in both bacterial and fungal abundance. The fungal community abundance was destabilized by soil tilling due to reduced richness and increased temporal variation in individual taxa. In contrast, soil tilling destabilized the bacterial community abundance by reducing the temporal variation in individual taxa. Both bacterial and fungal community abundances were more temporally variable when taxa fluctuated more synchronously through time. Our results show that land management practices, such as tilling, can destabilize soil microbial abundance by reducing the richness and disrupting the temporal dynamics below‐ground. However, the differences in the mechanisms that underlie the temporal variations in fungal and bacterial net abundances suggest that the mechanisms that drive the stability can differ among guilds of organisms within the same system. The different temporal responses between the fungal and bacterial communities are likely linked to changes in edaphic properties resulting from the physical alteration of the soil structure. A http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13056/suppinfo is available for this article.

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“…), intercropping (Vandermeer ) or subsidiary crops [cover crops (Wittwer et al . ) and ‘living mulches’ (Hartwig & Ammon ; Costanzo & Bàrberi )]. Competition among plants in the field should be seen as something to manipulate, not something to avoid.…”

Section: The Importance Of Improving Soil Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Increased plant biomass density in the field is the key to increasing agricultural sustainability, while producing high yields. (i) More standing biomass (and less bare soil) through increased crop density (Weiner et al 2010), intercropping (Vandermeer 1989) or subsidiary crops [cover crops (Wittwer et al 2017) and 'living mulches' (Hartwig & Ammon 2002;Costanzo & B arberi 2016)]. Competition among plants in the field should be seen as something to manipulate, not something to avoid.…”

Section: The Importance Of Improving Soil Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying plant ecological knowledge to increase agricultural sustainability

Weiner

2017

Journal of Ecology

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Summary1. Plant ecological knowledge accumulated over the past 150 years has enormous implications for agriculture, but most of these implications have not been appreciated by ecologists or agronomists. Here, I present several of the most salient examples. 2. Agriculturalists refer to 'improvements', but plant ecologists know that 'trade-offs' represent a better conceptual framework for agricultural production. There is much evidence for trade-offs between yield and resource use efficiency, and between individual fitness and population yield. I argue that there is also a 'limiting trade-off' between short-term yield and sustainability, and it is important to take this into consideration if we are serious about increasing sustainability. 3. At the local level, agricultural sustainability is about maintaining or improving soil fertility, but this is not a priority in most agricultural systems world-wide. Increased biomass density (both living and dead) in the field is the key to increasing sustainability while maintaining high yields, and I present a vision of 'High Biomass Cropping Systems'. 4. Classical and current research in plant community ecology tells us that rotation of crops with different nutritional needs, pests, diseases and weeds can make a major contribution to sustainability. The very limited crop rotations practised in most modern plant production systems are a clear indication that farming practices are usually based on short-term economic and regulatory factors, without much if any consideration for sustainability. 5. Synthesis. The modern scientific method tells us how we should test hypotheses, but it says nothing about how hypotheses are generated. We need to address the agricultural research agenda if it is to serve the interests of farmers, consumers and society as a whole, rather than narrow but powerful economic interests.

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Cover crops support ecological intensification of arable cropping systems

Cited by 220 publications

References 51 publications

Importance of cover crops in alleviating negative effects of reduced soil tillage and promoting soil fertility in a winter wheat cropping system

Importance of cover crops in alleviating negative effects of reduced soil tillage and promoting soil fertility in a winter wheat cropping system

Linking diversity, synchrony and stability in soil microbial communities

Applying plant ecological knowledge to increase agricultural sustainability

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