Alternative arable cropping systems: A key to increase soil organic carbon storage? Results from a 16 year field experiment

Autret, Bénédicte; Mary, Bruno; Chenu, Claire; Balabane, May; Girardin, Cyril; Bertrand, Michel; Grandeau, Gilles; Beaudoin, Nicolas

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2016.07.008

Cited by 100 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…These differences were very large and could have strong environmental repercussions. For example, soil fertility, and especially soil organic C content, is fundamentally dependent on the amount of C inputs provided (Autret et al, 2016;Virto et al, 2012), which was also confirmed here by the results from the long term simulations. Maintaining soil fertility on the long term on a sustainable basis is the major challenge of agriculture nowadays, especially with the development of biofuel production, consuming huge amounts of crop residues.…”

Section: Consequences For Soil Fertilitysupporting

confidence: 73%

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: Consequences For Soil Fertilitysupporting

confidence: 73%

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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“…Increasing C inputs can be achieved by recycling more organic products (but most of them, especially manure, are already recycled) or by increasing field biomass production and recycling (crop residue incorporation, cover crops between cash crops, cover cropping in vineyards and orchards). Although a large part of the additional biomass is readily mineralized after incorporation in soils, recent studies of longterm experiments have confirmed a positive effect on soil C stocks (Justes et al, 2012;Autret et al, 2016).…”

Section: Increase Carbon Storage In Soils and Biomassmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate-smart cropping systems for temperate and tropical agriculture: mitigation, adaptation and trade-offs

2017

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-Climate-smart cropping systems should be designed with three objectives: reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, adapting to changing and fluctuating climate and environment, and securing food production sustainably. Agriculture can improve the net GHG emissions balance via three levers: less N 2 O, CH 4 and CO 2 emissions, more carbon storage, and green energy production (agrifuels, biogas). Reducing the application of mineral N fertilizer is the main option for reducing N 2 O emissions either directly or by increasing the proportion of legumes in the rotation. The most promising options for mitigating CH 4 emissions in paddy fields are based on mid-season drainage or intermittent irrigation. The second option is storing more carbon in soil and biomass by promoting no-tillage (less fuel, crop residues), sowing cover crops, introducing or maintaining grasslands and promoting agroforestry. Breeding for varieties better adapted to thermal shocks and drought is mainly suggested as long-term adaptation to climate change. Short-term strategies have been identified from current practices to take advantage of more favorable growing conditions or to offset negative impacts: shifting sowing dates, changing species, cultivars and crop rotations, modifying soil management and fertilization, introducing or expanding irrigation. Some crops could also move to more suitable locations. Model-based tools and site-specific technologies should be developed to optimize, support and secure farmer's decisions in a context of uncertainty and hazards. Most of the adaptation and mitigation options are going in the same way but tradeoffs will have to be addressed (e.g. increasing the part of legumes will be possible only with significant breeding efforts). This will be a challenge for designing cropping systems in a multifunctional perspective.

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“…In the short-term, tillage is known to cause a sharp increase of CO 2 flux in the first days after soil-disturbance. In the long-run, studies show contradictory results as the decomposition of organic matter was found to be higher [38,39], similar [4,40], or lower [41][42][43] under CT compared with NT. These inconsistencies across studies have been hypothetically attributed to differences of water content; climate; and the amount, type, and stratification of organic matter [2].…”

Section: Green Teamentioning

confidence: 96%

“…In Europe, the adoption of NT is much less widespread than in other countries [3] and, although many studies have shown that NT implementation might provide other advantages (e.g., soil C sequestration, soil biodiversity enhancement, greater crop yield, weed suppression, etc. ), recent studies indicate that these benefits may not be as widely observed as previously thought [2,4,5]. In particular, whereas many studies have reviewed the long-term effect of NT [6,7], the system behavior during the transition period is still poorly documented [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response of Organic Matter Decomposition to No-Tillage Adoption Evaluated by the Tea Bag Technique

2018

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Organic matter (OM) decomposition is a fundamental ecosystem service in conservation agriculture, but the response of this process to the conversion from conventional tillage (CT) to no-tillage (NT) systems is not fully understood, especially during the transition period. Here, using a litterbag experiment (tea bag technique), we studied OM decomposition in a chronosequence of NT fields of different ages since conversion from CT (1 to 7 years) around Beauvais (northern France). We found that, in contrast with physico-chemical soil properties, the decomposition of both high quality (green tea) and low quality (rooibos tea) organic matter was significantly correlated with the NT age. Irrespective of the OM quality, the OM mass losses linearly increased with the time span since conversion from CT to NT. Taken together, our results suggest that adopting NT practices provides more favorable habitats for microorganisms involved in OM decomposition.

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Alternative arable cropping systems: A key to increase soil organic carbon storage? Results from a 16 year field experiment

Cited by 100 publications

References 61 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

Climate-smart cropping systems for temperate and tropical agriculture: mitigation, adaptation and trade-offs

Response of Organic Matter Decomposition to No-Tillage Adoption Evaluated by the Tea Bag Technique

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