Soil organic matter and biological soil quality indicators after 21 years of organic and conventional farming

Fließbach, Andreas; Oberholzer, Hans‐Rudolf; Gunst, Lucie; Mäder, Paul

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2006.05.022

Cited by 597 publications

(368 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…In a paired t test, the difference in SOC content between DYN and ORG was significant. Only one experiment in a Californian vineyard showed no difference in SOC between ORG and DYN (Reeve et al 2005),whereas systematic differences were found in two controlled, long-term experiments at temperate sites in Germany (Raupp 2001) and Switzerland (Fließbach et al 2007, for lower fertilization level, and Leifeld et al 2009, for higher fertilization level). In the study of Raupp (2001), loss of SOC relative to CON was smaller in DYN than in ORG for low-and medium-level manure application and DYN was the only system that gained SOC under high organic fertilization.…”

Section: Discussion Factors Causing Differences In Socmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Organic Farming and Soil Carbon Sequestration: What Do We Really Know About the Benefits?

Leifeld

Fuhrer

2010

AMBIO

139

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Organic farming is believed to improve soil fertility by enhancing soil organic matter (SOM) contents. An important co-benefit would be the sequestration of carbon from atmospheric CO 2 . Such a positive effect has been suggested based on data from field experiments though many studies were not designed to address the issue of carbon sequestration. The aim of our study was to examine published data in order to identify possible flaws such as missing a proper baseline, carbon mass measurements, or lack of a clear distinction between conventional and organic farming practices, thereby attributing effects of specific practices to organic farming, which are not uniquely organic. A total of 68 data sets were analyzed from 32 peer-reviewed publications aiming to compare conventional with organic farming. The analysis revealed that after conversion, soil C content (SOC) in organic systems increased annually by 2.2% on average, whereas in conventional systems SOC did not change significantly. The majority of publications reported SOC concentrations rather than amounts thus neglecting possible changes in soil bulk density. 34 out of 68 data sets missed a true control with well-defined starting conditions. In 37 out of 50 cases, the amount of organic fertilizer in the organic system exceeded that applied in the compared conventional system, and in half of the cases crop rotations differed between systems. In the few studies where crop rotation and organic fertilization were comparable in both systems no consistent difference in SOC was found. From this data analysis, we conclude that the claim for beneficial effects of organic farming on SOC is premature and that reported advantages of organic farming for SOC are largely determined by higher and often disproportionate application of organic fertilizer compared to conventional farming.

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Section: Discussion Factors Causing Differences In Socmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Three experiments comprising six datasets compared ORG and DYN plots (Raupp 2001;Reeve et al 2005;Fließbach et al 2007;Leifeld et al 2009). Among these, ORG lost -0.74% (±0.10) whereas biodynamic systems lost only 0.40% (±0.13).…”

Section: Biodynamic Farmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic Farming and Soil Carbon Sequestration: What Do We Really Know About the Benefits?

Leifeld

Fuhrer

2010

AMBIO

139

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“…On the other hand, soil enzyme activities have been suggested to be appropriate indicators of soil quality because of their close correlation with soil biology and prompt response to changes in soil management (Fliessbach et al 2007), and some soil enzymes that reflect soil management effects have been selected (Bandick and Dick 1999;Ndiaye et al 2000;Knight and Dick 2004). Many studies have suggested that soil enzyme activities are useful for discriminating among soil management practices, such as application of animal manure, green manure or crop residues (Dick et al 1988;Marinari et al 2006;Elfstrand et al 2007), and among tillage treatments (Gupta and Germida 1988;Mijangos et al 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends of lettuce and carrot yields and soil enzyme activities during transition from conventional to organic farming in an Andosol

Karasawa

Takebe

Sato

et al. 2014

Soil Science and Plant Nutrition

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“…Therefore microbial biomass and various enzymatic activities are often measured to provide exact information about small changes in soils (He et al, 2008;2009) and under various cropping systems . Microbial biomass (Fliebach et al, 2007 andUllah et al, 2013) and soil enzyme activities have been proposed as potential sensitive indicators to reveal changes of soil quality (Yang et al, 2008) and soil properties (Ross et al, 2003) on various soil water variation on slope gradient areas (Ullah et al, 2009). In arid environment, application of crop residues stimulates the microbial biomass size (Gaofei et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mineralization of Organic Residues, Dynamics of Microbial Biomass and Enzyme Activities in an Aridisol and Alfisol Soil under Rain-Fed Dry Farming

Ullah

Mehdi

Khan

et al. 2018

Agritropica. J. Agr. Sci.

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ABSTRACT:This study was planned with hypothesis to quantify mineralization rate of wheat and groundnut straw spiked in Kahuta and Guliana soil series. Results revealed that groundnut and wheat strawspiked soils had increased quantum of microbial biomass carbon (Cmic), biomass nitrogen (Nmic) and biomass phosphorous (Pmic) and activities of enzyme dehydrogenase (DHA) and alkaline phosphatase (APA) than un-amended soils. Initially, the contents of soil Cmic, Nmic, Pmic, DHA, and APA increased gradually during 2-14 th days of incubation (DAI), again increased significantly at 28 th DAI and then decreased slowly at 60 th DAI in all treatments under both series. Hence, the addition of groundnut straw mineralized better than to other organic sources in both soil series. These results suggested that groundnut straw must be incorporated in soil one month before sowing of crop to enhance crop yield under rain-fed dry farming.

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Soil organic matter and biological soil quality indicators after 21 years of organic and conventional farming

Cited by 597 publications

References 37 publications

Organic Farming and Soil Carbon Sequestration: What Do We Really Know About the Benefits?

Organic Farming and Soil Carbon Sequestration: What Do We Really Know About the Benefits?

Trends of lettuce and carrot yields and soil enzyme activities during transition from conventional to organic farming in an Andosol

Mineralization of Organic Residues, Dynamics of Microbial Biomass and Enzyme Activities in an Aridisol and Alfisol Soil under Rain-Fed Dry Farming

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