Using Winter Cover Crops to Improve Soil and Water Quality

Functional traits in agriculture: agrobiodiversity and ecosystem services

“…Agrobiodiversity can impact ecosystem services directly, such as when increased crop diversity increases human nutrition [14], or indirectly, such as when cover crop diversity increases plant biomass, which is associated with improved water quality and decreased runoff [15]. Understanding linkages between agrobiodiversity and ecosystem services is crucial for predicting how changes in environment and management practices will impact the multiple ecosystem services provided by agroecosystems [16][17][18].…”

Upland rice yield as affected by previous summer crop rotation (soybean or upland rice) and glyphosate management on cover crops

“…This can have occurred because soybean can add more nitrogen to the soil compared to rice. According to Dabney et al (2001) and Filizadeh et al (2007), legumes contribute with nitrogen to subsequent crops or cover crops.…”

“…Cover crops can increase the nutrient use efficiency of farming systems, because they can tap nutrients from deeper layer to soil surface, which occurs due to the decomposition and mineralization of their residues (Crusciol et al, 2010). In addition, they could reduce the loss of nutrients such a nitrogen in eroded soil (Dabney et al, 2001). Meanwhile, Souza et al (2006) and Yahuza (2011) suggest that cover crops may have both positive (cycling of nutrients, weed suppression, and erosion control) and negative (N deficiency on crop residues with high C:N ratio or allelopathic effects) impacts on the development of plants.…”

“…Therefore, it is important to develop technologies to have better rice performance under NTS. According to Dabney et al (2001), the identification of cover crop species, determining the time of their sowing, and killing are strategies for a successful NTS performance and will provide improved crop yield. The objective of this study was to assess upland rice yield as affected by previous summer crop (upland rice or soybean), species and desiccation timing of cover crops, and tillage system (conventional tillage or notillage).…”

“…Nowadays, sustainable agriculture consists of many practices that entail the idea of an agricultural system instead of thinking only of one crop and one year (Dabney et al, 2001). This diversification of agricultural activities aims to increase the ecological, economical and social development of agriculture (Filizadeh et al, 2007;Crusciol et al, 2010).…”