Managing the Soil Habitat for Enhanced Biological Fertility

Clapperton, M. Jill; Chan, K. Y.; Larney, F. J.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-6619-1_10

Cited by 16 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 97 publications

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“…Organic matter additions (crop residue, farmyard manure, and green manure), legume-containing pastures, diverse crop rotations and crop mixtures, minimum or no-till systems, livestock grazing, and application of certain inoculants are known to enhance soil biological fertility, with positive effects on chemical and physical attributes of soil as well; tillage and application of fertilizers and pesticides, on the other hand, generally inhibit soil biological activity (Abbott and Murphy 2007;Clapperton et al 2007;Nelson and Spaner 2010;Druille et al 2013). Crop diversity appears to be one of the most important contributors to soil biological fertility (Drinkwater and Snapp 2007).…”

Section: Soil Biological Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Review: Redesigning Canadian prairie cropping systems for profitability, sustainability, and resilience

2015

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Thiessen Martens, J. R., Entz, M. H. and Wonneck, M. D. 2015. Review: Redesigning Canadian prairie cropping systems for profitability, sustainability, and resilience. Can. J. Plant Sci. 95: 1049Á1072. Redesign of agricultural systems according to ecological principles has been proposed for the development of sustainable systems. We review a wide variety of ecologically based crop production practices, including crop varieties and genetic diversity, crop selection and rotation, cover crops, annual polyculture, perennial forages, perennial grains, agroforestry systems, reducing tillage, use of animal manures and green manures, soil biological fertility, organic production systems, integrated cropÁlivestock systems, and purposeful design of farm landscapes (farmscaping), and discuss their potential role in enhancing the profitability, environmental sustainability, and resilience of Canadian prairie cropping systems. Farming systems that most closely mimic natural systems through appropriate integration of diverse components, within a context of supportive social and economic structures, appear to offer the greatest potential benefits, while creating a framework in which to place all other farming practices. Our understanding of ecological relationships within agricultural systems is currently lacking, and a major shift in research, education, and policy will be required to purposefully and proactively redesign Canadian prairie agricultural systems for long-term sustainability.

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Section: Soil Biological Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Review: Redesigning Canadian prairie cropping systems for profitability, sustainability, and resilience

2015

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“…The benefits of zero-tillage have long been recognized in conventional systems [26,69], and although adoption of zero-tillage in conventional systems has been greatly assisted by the use of herbicides for weed control, high-input costs are supporting a shift toward reduced input systems. In terms of long-term sustainability, such well-managed conventional systems may rival some organically managed systems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such disruption may exacerbate the P depletion problem. In general, soil microbial diversity and biological fertility is best encouraged by management systems with minimal tillage, increased above-ground biodiversity (i.e., diverse crop rotations or crop mixtures), and reduced synthetic inputs [68,69]. It has been suggested that a well-managed, reduced-input, zero-tillage conventional system could compete favourably against organic systems with regard to maintaining soil biological fertility [27,68].…”

Section: Managing Soil Fertility/qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sustainability of Organic Grain Production on the Canadian Prairies—A Review

Snyder

Spaner

2010

Sustainability

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Demand for organically produced food products is increasing rapidly in North America, driven by a perception that organic agriculture results in fewer negative environmental impacts and yields greater benefits for human health than conventional systems. Despite the increasing interest in organic grain production on the Canadian Prairies, a number of challenges remain to be addressed to ensure its long-term sustainability. In this review, we summarize Western Canadian research into organic crop production and evaluate its agronomic, environmental, and economic sustainability.

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“…A transitional type corresponded to xero-mesophytic communities on the Phaeozems with 55-80 mm additional redistributed runoff value. With acceptable accuracy, the habitat for natural plant communities based on soil function model predicts the position of contrastingly different components of biota in relation to their soil moisture requirements within the virgin forest-steppe of the Central Russian Upland.(including organic carbon and nutrients concentration), and moisture characteristics are the key properties for the plant's growth [4,[9][10][11][15][16][17]. The connection between soil properties and plant parameters are implemented in the global and regional ecological scales [18][19][20][21].Our study site is located in the virgin forest-steppe of East European plain.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(including organic carbon and nutrients concentration), and moisture characteristics are the key properties for the plant's growth [4,[9][10][11][15][16][17]. The connection between soil properties and plant parameters are implemented in the global and regional ecological scales [18][19][20][21].…”

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confidence: 99%

Digital Mapping of Habitat for Plant Communities Based on Soil Functions: A Case Study in the Virgin Forest-Steppe of Russia

et al. 2019

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The spatial structure of the habitat for plant communities based on soil functions in virgin forest-steppe of the Central Russian Upland is the focus of this study. The objectives include the identification of the leading factors of soil function variety and to determine the spatial heterogeneity of the soil function. A detailed topographic survey was carried out on a key site (35 hectares), 157 soil, and 34 geobotanical descriptions were made. The main factor of soil and plant cover differentiation is the redistribution of soil moisture along the microrelief. Redistributed runoff value was modelled in SIMWE and used as a tool for spatial prediction of soils due to their role in a habitat for plant communities' functional context. The main methods of the study are the multidimensional scaling and discriminant analysis. We model the composition of plant communities (accuracy is 95%) and Reference Soil Group (accuracy is 88%) due to different soil moisture conditions. There are two stable soil habitat types: mesophytic communities on the Phaeozems (with additional water runoff more than 80 mm) and xerophytic communities on Chernozems (additional runoff less than 55 mm). A transitional type corresponded to xero-mesophytic communities on the Phaeozems with 55-80 mm additional redistributed runoff value. With acceptable accuracy, the habitat for natural plant communities based on soil function model predicts the position of contrastingly different components of biota in relation to their soil moisture requirements within the virgin forest-steppe of the Central Russian Upland.(including organic carbon and nutrients concentration), and moisture characteristics are the key properties for the plant's growth [4,[9][10][11][15][16][17]. The connection between soil properties and plant parameters are implemented in the global and regional ecological scales [18][19][20][21].Our study site is located in the virgin forest-steppe of East European plain. The climatic conditions of the forest-steppe with favorable water-air and thermal regime contribute to the formation of the most fertile soils among all the natural land areas [22]. However, the diversity of edaphic conditions determines the wide variation of soil moisture and aeration regimes and, as a result, variety in plant species composition. We suppose that the soil moisture is the leading factor controlling species composition in the virgin forest-steppe, as it has been qualitatively shown [23].The aim of our work was the digital mapping of the habitat for natural plant communities' soil function, soil moisture conditions and related plant species composition in virgin forest-steppe landscapes of V.V. Alekhin Central Chernozem State Reserve (Kursk region, Russia). The objectives were to: (1) quantitatively characterize the relationship of the water regime and soil properties, the composition of plant species; (2) define the different habitat types; (3) create and verify the habitat for a plant communities map. We characterized the soil forming factors features for each se...

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Managing the Soil Habitat for Enhanced Biological Fertility

Cited by 16 publications

References 97 publications

Review: Redesigning Canadian prairie cropping systems for profitability, sustainability, and resilience

Review: Redesigning Canadian prairie cropping systems for profitability, sustainability, and resilience

The Sustainability of Organic Grain Production on the Canadian Prairies—A Review

Digital Mapping of Habitat for Plant Communities Based on Soil Functions: A Case Study in the Virgin Forest-Steppe of Russia

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