Soil and crop management systems that ameliorate damage caused by decades of dryland agroecosystem mismanagement

Abstract

Sustainable crop production in the Great Plains of North America has been challenging since early settlement times, and mismanagement has severely damaged our dryland agroecosystems. The unintentional damage stemmed from using practices unsuited to dryer climates. In fact, the management practices imported from more humid agricultural areas during the settlement period were considered the best ways to farm. The Dust Bowl era was the disastrous result of creating bare soil surfaces, with aggregates pulverized by excessive tillage on millions of hectares of land. It became obvious to pioneer scientists that retaining cover on the soil surface was critical to sustainability and their early efforts resulted in a widely adopted practice known as stubble mulch. Stubble mulch practices markedly decreased the rate of damage to dryland ecosystems. Advent of herbicidal weed control led to reduced and no-till practices that not only increased soil cover, but also significantly enhanced soil water conservation. This paper focuses on how and why the coupling of conservation tillage and cropping intensification is ameliorating the damage that accrued over decades of agroecosystem mismanagement. The objectives of this paper are to (a) remind us of fragile nature of the Great Plains ecosystem, (b) review how and why ecosystems were degraded, and (c) identify principles and associated practices for amelioration. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Compost inputs, cropping system, and rotation phase drive aggregate‐associated carbon

“…In the semiarid climate of the High Plains region of the United States, dryland grain farmers often include unvegetated fallow periods in their crop rotations to replenish moisture in the soil profile. Winter wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.)–fallow cropping has resulted in soil degradation since organic inputs are periodic and erosion during fallow periods can occur when there is reduced ground cover (Peterson et al., 2020; Rosenzweig et al., 2018). Understanding the temporal effects of these fallows on SOM dynamics is critical for managing and building SOM stocks on dryland farms.…”

Cover crops to improve soil health in the North American Great Plains

“…1; Unger & Baumhardt, 2001). As in other dryland regions, soil water availability is the single most limiting factor affecting crop production (Peterson, Westfall, Schipanski, Fonte, 2020).…”

Removing Barriers and Creating Opportunities for Climate-Resilient Agriculture by Optimizing Federal Crop Insurance

“…In the early 20 th century, agriculturalists advised farmers to stabilize winter wheat yields by implementing fourteen months of bare fallow to store water in the soil before planting (Peterson et al 2020). Decades of research have shown, however, that the fallow does not store water efficiently (Nielsen and Vigil 2010).…”

“…The rise of no-till farming, in which the crops are planted without plowing, has allowed many farmers to plant a productive crop annually without summer fallow periods. This practice thus protects soil from erosion, increases soil carbon, and leads to greater overall yield and income (Peterson et al 2020;Rosenzweig, Fonte, and Schipanski 2018). The adoption of more frequent and diverse cropping practices, however, has been hindered by FCIP policy that requires fallow prior to sowing wheat to insure the crop (Rosenzweig, Carolan, and Schipanski 2019).…”