There is a need to assess alternative cropping systems for climate change mitigation. Hence, we aimed to evaluate if cowpea, a legume crop with high climate adaptability and active rhizodeposition, ...can reduce GHG emissions when intercropped with melon, if different intercropping patterns can affect these soil GHG emissions, and elucidate if GHG emissions are related by soil and crop properties. We compared a cowpea and melon monocultures with different melon-cowpea intercropping patterns during two crop cycles. The different melon-cowpea intercropping patterns were: row intercropping 1:1 (melon:cowpea), row intercropping 2:1 (melon:cowpea) and mixed intercropping (alternate melon/cowpea plants within the same row), receiving 30% less fertilizers than monocrops. Results showed that CO
2
emission rates were higher in the row 2:1 and row 1:1 intercropping systems compared to mixed intercropping, melon monocrop and cowpea monocrop, with the lowest emissions, likely due to the highest density of both plant species, which may stimulate microbial communities. Soil N
2
O emission rates were not affected by crop diversification, with very low values. Soil CO
2
and N
2
O emissions were not correlated with environmental factors, soil properties or crop yield and quality, suggesting that crop management and plant density and growth were the main factors controlling GHG emissions. When the GHG emissions were expressed on a crop production basis, the lowest values were observed in mixed intercropping, owing to higher crop production. However, the 1:1 and 2:1 cowpea intercropping systems, with the lowest overall crop production, showed higher values of GHG emissions per unit of product, compared to cowpea monocrop. Thus, intercropping systems, and mostly mixed intercropping, have the potential to contribute to sustainable agriculture by increasing land productivity, reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers and decreasing GHG emissions per unit of product. These results highlight the importance of considering both agricultural productivity and greenhouse gas emissions when designing and implementing intercropping systems.
Creation of Technosols in combination with phytostabilization may be a sustainable strategy to minimize the environmental and human health hazards derived from mine tailings. Bioaugmentation can ...facilitate plant establishment and growth for efficient phytostabilization. In order to assess if bioaugmentation can increase soil quality and fertility, decrease metal(loid) mobility and accelerate plant colonization, a one-year field experiment was designed with creation of Technosols in two tailings ponds with different pH (acidic (AT) and neutral (NT)), with addition of marble waste (MaW) and two organic materials (pig manure (PM) and sewage sludge (SS), without or with inoculation of effective microorganisms (EM) at three rates. Results showed that MaW was the main factor responsible for maintaining pH ~7 in AT and ~8 in NT, decreasing salinity, and decreasing the soluble fraction of metals (70–99%). The soluble fraction of As decreased ~45% in AT, related to increases in pH up to neutrality, while increased ~90% in NT with PM due to pH>8 and higher content of organic compounds. The addition of PM and SS significantly increased soil organic C (SOC), nutrient contents and microbial biomass and activity in both tailings, being PM more effective. However, a positive priming effect was observed in NT with SS addition likely due to higher C/N ratio and lack of nutrients. There was a significant effect of EM rate on inorganic C, SOC, N, K and microbial biomass and activity, with higher values as rate increased. Vegetation richness and density directly increased with increasing EM rate. Multivariate analyses showed that the most important properties contributing to increase richness and plant density were microbial biomass and N. Thus, bioaugmentation contributed to soil C sequestration (as organic and inorganic C) and soil fertility, related to high soil microbial biomass and activity, which facilitated an effective colonization of vegetation.
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•Effective microorganisms (EM) contributed to increase soil organic and inorganic C.•EM favoured higher soil nutrient contents.•EM adding rate was related to increased vegetation richness and plant density.•Vegetation colonization was mainly associated to microbial biomass, organic C and N.•The organic material and EM rate was not related to metal immobilization.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The fate and turnover of microbial carbon (C) in an arable soil following crop residue addition likely depends on the quality of both native soil organic matter (SOM) and residues. We labeled the ...microbial biomass with ¹³C-glucose and followed the microbial ¹³C turnover into different SOM pools under the influence of three plant amendments (mature wheat, immature wheat, and vetch) in a laboratory incubation experiment using a soil with two different contents of organic C (0.9 and 1.3 %) owing to different soil management. At the end of incubation, more labeled glucose C was assimilated into microbial biomass in amended samples compared to an unamended control. The addition of plant residues also caused a positive priming effect, enhancing mineralization of soil organic C, which led to overall less glucose-derived C being incorporated into soil C pools. This was more pronounced in the soil with lower soil organic C content. Recovery of microbial C as recalcitrant C ranged between 6.0 and 7.1 %, with no significant effect of initial SOM content and addition of plant materials. Although the short-term fate of C present in microbial biomass was clearly affected by residue additions and initial native SOM, the extent to which it was stabilized as recalcitrant C during this time was not affected and must therefore be controlled by other factors than soil amendments and land management.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
4.
Agricultural Diversification Di Bene, Claudia; Francaviglia, Rosa; Farina, Roberta ...
Agriculture,
03/2022, Volume:
12, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Agricultural intensification is a highly specialized agri-food system that has contributed to raising food production worldwide due to progress in agricultural machinery and technologies, the use of ...improved cultivars, and external inputs such as fertilizers, irrigation, and pesticides ...
The organic fraction of municipal waste, OFMW, management is one of the main concerns for urban waste managers in developed countries. Composting this biodegradable urban waste and using the compost ...in agricultural activities is a quickly growing method and is a viable option to manage urban waste in both the developed and the developing world. This research presents the example of the management proposal for Cartagena city in Spain, in which the technical and environment feasibility has been studied. This work aimed to evaluate the composting of a mixture of different residues, namely organic waste, pruning, and Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile, which was collected from the beaches of the municipality while cleaning. Mixtures 1, M1 (composed of 20% OFMW and 40% pruning and seaweed) and 3, M3 (composed of 30% OFMW and 70% pruning) proved to be the best to reach the ideal compost (1.23-0.08-1.28 NPK and 2.22-0.33-3.45 NPK, respectively). An extreme mixture, M2, was evaluated (50% PO; 50% pruning) but poor results were obtained due to a non-optimal initial C/N by not containing OFMW. At the same time, the volumes by urban nucleus and the viability of different composting strategies have been studied, proposing that 180,000 inhabitants use the centralized composting plant and almost 31,000 inhabitants use self-composting and community composting. Considering the carbon footprint of this management, the value was 50% lower than the total management in a centralized plant. Moreover, the final use of compost is optimum with self-composting and community composting because it is nearest to agricultural consumptions, also reducing the transport of the final product.
Significant differences in the microbial community and diversity in soil have been observed due to organic farming, but little research has been performed for exploring microbial functionality and ...the co-occurrence of patterns among microbial taxa. In this work, we study soil 16S rDNA amplicons from two long-term organic farming systems (Org_C and Org_M) and a conventional system (Conv) to decipher the differences in microbial interaction and network organization and to predict functional genes (principally related to the N cycle). In general, the network organizations were different in all cropping systems due to agricultural management. Org_C showed the highest negative interactions and modularity and the most altered bacterial niches and interactions, which led to an increase in generalist species that stabilize the bacterial community and improve the response of the soil to adverse conditions. These changes altered the predicted functionality of the bacterial community; Org_C showed higher referred numbers of nitrogen fixation genes, a decrease in the N2O emission genes and could favor the uptake of environmental CO2. Thus, long-term compost amendment application has significant benefits for the farmer and the environment, since prolonged application can reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides and could create a more stable soil, which could resist the effects of climate change.
Metalliferous mining activities generate a large amount of waste. This waste usually has high concentrations of pollutants such as metal(oid)s associated with the extractive processes, which, if not ...properly treated and reclaimed, put the ecosystem and the population at risk. One of the most used techniques for mine waste reclamation is aided phytostabilization, which is based on the use of plants that immobilize metals in the soil/roots aided by the use of amendments to improve the soil properties to favor plant growth. Although amendments increase nutrients and improve the soil properties, the concentration of these nutrients—especially N, the most limiting plant nutrient—decreases over time. Thus, this study focused on the evaluation of the relationship between different combinations of amendments (compost, biochar, zeolite and limestone) and plant growth (we introduced Coronilla juncea and Piptatherum miliaceum) on the evolution of soil N over time as well as the influence of C. juncea on soil N fixation. The results showed that the addition of amendments improved the soil characteristics in all plots favoring the growth of C. juncea and P. miliaceum. The compost provided higher concentrations of total N, nitrites, nitrates and ammonium due to the nature of this amendment and the biochar was less in measure. The limestone helped to elevate the pH and the zeolite controlled the exchangeable ions. Soils from C. juncea showed higher concentrations of N forms, suggesting that this legume contributes to the enrichment of soil N, likely due to biological fixation. Hence, the combinations limestone-zeolite-compost and limestone-zeolite-compost-biochar were the most suitable treatments for improving the soil fertility and favored plant growth. In addition, C. juncea seems to be a good candidate for reclaiming mining environments.
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CEKLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
* Crop diversification is a dynamic pathway towards sustainable agrifood systems. * Technological and institutional barriers restrict uptake of crop diversification. * More coordination and ...cooperation among agrifood system stakeholders is required. * The European Crop Diversification Cluster calls for multiactor networks.
European cropping systems are often characterized by short rotations or even monocropping, leading to environmental issues such as soil degradation, water eutrophication, and air pollution including greenhouse gas emissions, that contribute to climate change and biodiversity loss. The use of diversification practices (i.e., intercropping, multiple cropping including cover cropping and rotation extension), may help enhance agrobiodiversity and deliver ecosystem services while developing new value chains. Despite its benefits, crop diversification is hindered by various technical, organizational, and institutional barriers along value chains (input industries, farms, trading and processing industries, retailers, and consumers) and within sociotechnical systems (policy, research, education, regulation and advisory). Six EU-funded research projects have joined forces to boost crop diversification by creating the European Crop Diversification Cluster (CDC). This Cluster aggregates research, innovation, commercial and citizen-focused partnerships to identify and remove barriers across the agrifood system and thus enables the uptake of diversification measures by all European value-chain stakeholders. The CDC will produce a typology of barriers, develop tools to accompany actors in their transition, harmonize the use of multicriteria assessment indicators, prepare policy recommendations and pave the way for a long-term network on crop diversification.
•Meta-analysis to assess effects of crop diversification and management on soil and yield.•Intercropping associated with increases in soil organic C and N.•No overall negative effect of intercropping ...on tree crop yield.•Temperature tends to decrease the response of crop yield, while precipitation tends to increase it.•The best combination for high crop yields, SOC, N and P is the adoption of annual alley crops, minimum tillage and organic fertilization.
A meta-analysis specially based on tree crops was conducted to evaluate the changes in soil organic carbon (SOC), soil N and P, and crop yield in a Mediterranean climate, which are affected by: (i) management practices (crop diversification, tillage, fertilization); (ii) environmental characteristics, such as soil clay and climatic variables; and (iii) study length. The aim of this study was to assess the benefits of crop diversification, conservation tillage (minimum tillage/no-tillage) and organic fertilization as alternatives to intensive conventional mono-cropping in field studies. All the diversified systems and conservation tillage systems and the use of organic fertilizers induced positive effects on SOC. The highest response in SOC was achieved by the growth of permanent crops in the alleys. Soil N showed a similar trend to that of SOC, but the effect of no-tillage was not significant compared to conventional tillage. No significant effect was observed in soil P except for the cultivation of permanent crops in the alleys, which had a negative effect. No effect was observed in tree crop yield due to the growth of alley crops, conservation tillage or organic fertilization. However, the response of crop yield was related to the specific climatic conditions of each region, with possible negative effects in warm and dry areas. Overall, the use of intercropping, conservation tillage and organic fertilization led to improvements in soil quality and fertility and maintenance of a ground cover that can protect soil. However, to avoid possible negative effects on soil P and N availability, the growth of annual alley crops with minimum tillage is suggested instead of permanent crops with no-tillage, especially in dry and warm areas. Our results also suggested that the soil properties evaluated were not the main drivers of long-term yield variability.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This study identifies, through consultation with relevant stakeholders, low-input farming practices that can help to minimize the most pressing agronomic and environmental problems in some of the ...most relevant Mediterranean woody crops in Spain (almond, citrus, and olive) and enhance their sustainability. The results illustrate stakeholders’ perception regarding how each cropping system could be oriented towards a more sustainable production. Despite each case study’s particularities, there is consensus in the need for a shift towards the use of organic fertilizers, the maintenance of vegetation in the edges of plots and the use of integrated pest control strategies. On the contrary, stakeholders have selected different tillage and soil cover practices that are consistent with the characteristics and problems of each cropping system. This study also identifies relevant strengths and drawbacks for the implementation of low-input agricultural practices in each crop and study area. While stakeholders find the identified low-impact farming practices as easy and not costly, suggesting a significant potential for their successful implementation, the results also point out at the reduced knowledge of the practical benefits of some farming practices and the need for improved technical advice to foster the adoption of others.
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