Early adoption of no-till mitigates soil organic carbon and nitrogen losses due to land use change

Cover crops as the main element of biologization of agriculture in the no-till system for reproduction of soil fertility

“…Soils with No-till almost doubled the mass of large macroaggregates and tripled the content of C and N in this fraction of water-resistant aggregates compared to the traditional tillage system [9,10]. The long absence of tillage contributed to macroaggregation in the surface soil.…”

Intensification of no‐till agricultural systems: An opportunity for carbon sequestration

“…Studies have shown higher N fixation rates for soybean and other legumes in NT than in tilled soils, with positive impacts on both SOC and TN stocks (Vieira et al, 2009;Zotarelli et al, 2012). In contrast, soil disruption was shown to increase SOC and moreover TN mineralization rates in both surface and deeper soil layers (Hobley et al, 2018;Banegas et al, 2019;Wuaden et al, 2020).…”

“…Moreover, N losses are intensified in warmer climate regions whereas a negative N balance due to increased nutrient exportation with grain harvesting may have contributed to the losses of TN observed with increased crop frequency (Zotarelli et al, 2012). Thus, the increase of SOC and the concomitant decrease of TN stocks with the intensification of cropping systems could promote a decoupling of C/N cycles due to changes in C and N inputs quality and quantity to the soil, soil disruption increasing SOC and TN mineralization rates, and increased N scavenging by agricultural crops (Hobley et al, 2018;Banegas et al, 2019;Wuaden et al, 2020).…”

“…Studies have shown higher N fixation rates for soybean and other legumes in NT than in tilled soils, with positive impacts on both SOC and TN stocks (Vieira et al, 2009;Zotarelli et al, 2012). In contrast, soil disruption was shown to increase SOC and moreover TN mineralization rates in both surface and deeper soil layers (Banegas et al, 2019;Hobley et al, 2018;Wuaden et al, 2020). Additionally, the use of legumes possibly prevented increased N scavenging by agricultural crops in deeper soil layers as compared with cropping systems lacking legumes with limiting N availability, thus increasing MD of TN stocks on the comparison of NT with tilled soils (Hobley et al, 2018).…”

“…Other studies have suggested that SOC losses in deeper layers of both tilled and NT soils may offset any C accrual in the surface, resulting in a net C loss rather than sequestration (Olson et al, 2014;Stewart et al, 2017). These results were attributed to the redistribution of SOC in the soil profile with tillage (Angers & Eriksen-Hamel, 2008;Luo et al, 2010), large yield gap (Amelung et al, 2020;Ogle et al, 2012;Pittelkow et al, 2014;Stewart et al, 2017), and the lack of root C inputs to deeper soil layers (Baker et al, 2007;Dietzel et al, 2017;Wuaden et al, 2020), thus impairing SOC stocks and C sequestration throughout the profile of NT soils.…”