Driving crop yield, soil organic C pools, and soil biodiversity with selected winter cover crops under no-till

Fiorini, Andrea; Remelli, Sara; Boselli, Roberta; Mantovi, Paolo; Ardenti, Federico; Trevisan, Marco; Menta, Cristina; Tabaglio, Vincenzo

doi:10.1016/j.still.2021.105283

Cited by 21 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The presence of CCs tended to decrease maize grain yields and total N uptakes (Table 2). This is fairly consistent with previous studies showing yield declines of 4%–23% after non‐legume CCs, due to a partial soil mineral N exhaustion (Abdalla et al, 2019; Fiorini et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Towards efficient N cycling in intensive maize: role of cover crops and application methods of digestate liquid fraction

et al. 2023

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Digestate, a by-product of biogas production, is widely recognized as a promising renewable nitrogen (N) source with high potential to replace synthetic fertilizers.Yet, inefficient digestate use can lead to pollutant N losses as ammonia (NH 3 ) volatilization, nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions and nitrate (NO − 3 ) leaching. Cover crops (CCs) may reduce some of these losses and recycle the N back into the soil after incorporation, but the effect on the N balance depends on the CC species.In a one-year field study, we tested two application methods (i.e., surface broadcasting, BDC; and shallow injection, INJ) of the liquid fraction of separated codigested cattle slurry (digestate liquid fraction [DLF]), combined with different winter cover crop (CC) options (i.e., rye, white mustard or bare fallow), as starter fertilizer for maize. Later, side-dressing with urea was required to fulfil maize N-requirements. We tested treatment effects on yield, N-uptake, N-use efficiency parameters, and N-losses in the form of N 2 O emissions and NO − 3 leaching. CC development and biomass production were strongly affected by their contrasting frost tolerance, with spring-regrowth for rye, while mustard was winter killed.After the CCs, injection of DLF increased N 2 O emissions significantly compared with BDC (emission factor of 2.69% vs. 1.66%). Nitrous oxide emissions accounted for a small part (11%-13%) of the overall yield-scaled N losses (0.46-0.97 kg N Mg grain −1 ). The adoption of CCs reduced fall NO − 3 leaching, being 51% and 64% lower for mustard and rye than under bare soil. In addition, rye reduced NO − 3 leaching during spring and summer after termination by promoting N immobilization, thus leading to −57% lower annual leaching losses compared with mustard. DLF application method modified N-loss pathways, but not the cumulative yield-scaled N losses. Overall, these insights contribute to inform an evidencebased design of cropping systems in which nutrients are recycled more efficiently. K E Y W O R D Scover crop residues, digestate broadcasting, digestate injection, N 2 O emissions, NO − 3 leaching

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Towards efficient N cycling in intensive maize: role of cover crops and application methods of digestate liquid fraction

et al. 2023

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“…In previous research, green manuring had a significant impact on the yield of subsequent crops, but the results were controversial [ 26 , 28 ]. Some studies suggested that GM has a negative impact on the crop yield, and most of these studies are based on <5 years of field experiment period rather than a long-term field experiment [ 29 ]. The results of this study showed that long-term planting and the utilization of GMs had a positive effect on the overall yield of crops.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Winter Green Manure Decreases Subsoil Nitrate Accumulation and Increases N Use Efficiencies of Maize Production in North China Plain

Zhao

Zhang

et al. 2023

Plants

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Planting a deep-rooted green manure (GM) (more than 1.0 m depth) greatly improves soil fertility and reduces the loss of nutrients. However, few studies have examined the response of soil nitrogen (N) distribution in the soil profile and subsoil N recovery to the long-term planting and incorporation of deep-rooted GM. Based on a 12-year (2009–2021) experiment of spring maize-winter GMs rotation in the North China Plain (NCP), this study investigated the effects of different GMs that were planted over the winter, including ryegrass (RrG, Lolium L.) (>1.0 m), Orychophragmus violaceus (OrV, Orychophragmus violaceus L.) (>0.8 m), and hairy vetch (VvR, Vicia villosa Roth.) (>1.0 m), on the spring maize yield, N distribution in the deep soil profile, N use efficiencies, functional gene abundances involving soil nitrification–denitrification processes and N2O production. Compared with the winter fallow, the maize yield significantly increased by 11.6% after 10 years of green manuring, and water storage in 0–200 cm soil profile significantly increased by 5.0–17.1% at maize seedling stage. The total N content in the soil layer at 0–90 cm increased by 15.8–19.7%, while the nitrate content in the deep soil layer (80–120 cm) decreased by 17.8–39.6%. Planting GM significantly increased the N recovery rate (10.4–32.7%) and fertilizer N partial productivity (4.6–13.3%). Additionally, the topsoil N functional genes (ammonia-oxidizing archaea amoA, ammonia-oxidizing bacterial amoA, nirS, nirK) significantly decreased without increasing N2O production potential. These results indicated that long-term planting of the deep-rooted GM effectively reduce the accumulation of nitrates in the deep soil and improve the crop yield and N use efficiencies, demonstrating a great value in green manuring to improve the fertility of the soil, increase the crop yield, and reduce the risk of N loss in NCP.

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“…Agricultural practices that increase the quantity or quality of organic matter inputs to the soil have been shown to increase earthworm densities . Such practices include the use of organic fertilizers (Lapied et al, 2009), the application and incorporation of crop residues (Frazão et al, 2019a), planting especially leguminous cover crops (Roarty et al, 2017;Fiorini et al, 2022), and the use of leys (Jarvis et al, 2017) or legumes (Ashworth et al, 2017; in crop rotations. These practices could alleviate the detrimental effect of intensive tillage on earthworms via an increase in food resources, and speed up the recovery of earthworm populations after tillage operations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Earthworm and arbuscular mycorrhizal communities in agricultural soils : management of key soil organisms for sustainable agriculture

Torppa¹

2023

Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae

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Intensive agriculture is detrimental to soil biodiversity and functioning. Promoting communities of key soil organisms, such as earthworms and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, may help improve agricultural sustainability by replacing inputs with ecosystem services. In this thesis, I explore ways to manage earthworm communities for improved soil functioning via adjusted agricultural practices, promotion of source habitats in the landscape, and inoculation. I also explore the effects of soil compaction on AM fungal symbiosis in wheat varieties, and test application of grassland soil as a method to increase AM fungal diversity in agricultural soils. I show that diverse earthworm communities and bioturbation can be promoted by reducing tillage intensity and total earthworm densities can be increased via diversifying crop rotations. Moist and fertile semi-natural grasslands with high small-scale habitat heterogeneity may serve to sustain earthworm diversity in agricultural landscapes. Inoculation with commercially obtained Lumbricus terrestris earthworms may help restore populations of this tillage sensitive species and improve wheat growth but the long-term establishment of these worms is uncertain. Application of grassland soil may increase AM fungal diversity in agricultural soils but this may not be reflected in AM fungal taxa colonizing wheat roots. I also show that soil compaction differently affects AM colonization in wheat varieties. Further research needs to identify which earthworm and AM fungal community properties best result in functional benefits under different conditions. Nevertheless, I show that earthworm and AM fungal communities can be promoted in various ways, individually or in combination, suggesting potential to enhance functional effects of these key organisms in agricultural soils.

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Driving crop yield, soil organic C pools, and soil biodiversity with selected winter cover crops under no-till

Cited by 21 publications

References 40 publications

Towards efficient N cycling in intensive maize: role of cover crops and application methods of digestate liquid fraction

Towards efficient N cycling in intensive maize: role of cover crops and application methods of digestate liquid fraction

Winter Green Manure Decreases Subsoil Nitrate Accumulation and Increases N Use Efficiencies of Maize Production in North China Plain

Earthworm and arbuscular mycorrhizal communities in agricultural soils : management of key soil organisms for sustainable agriculture

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