Abstract
In the last few decades, various crop diversification strategies and management practices have been promoted to improve or at least maintain environmental quality and agroecosystem services. We conducted a data-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of alternatives for crop diversification and environmentally friendly farming management for arable crops in four selected European pedoclimatic regions and typical cropping systems in the Atlantic, Boreal, Mediterranean North, and Mediterranean South regions. The dataset was retrieved from 38 references and included data on site-specific environmental conditions, soil tillage, crop rotation, fertilization, and final soil organic carbon content (SOC). No tillage (NT) was more effective (7%) in increasing SOC content than minimum tillage (MT) across the studied depths (from 5 to 40 cm). Conservation tillage as whole, including NT, MT, and rotational tillage (RT) positively affected SOC content in the top 10 cm (28%) in comparison with conventional tillage (CT). Compared to monoculture, longer crop rotations (3–5 years) and the introduction of legumes resulted in higher increases in SOC contents (18%), that were higher in semiarid conditions (11%) than under humid and sub-humid climates (3.2%). The effect of fertilization on SOC contents was higher in the Mediterranean North region (28%), and organic fertilization showed the highest increases (25%) compared to the control with mineral fertilization. Higher increases in SOC contents with tillage and fertilization management were found in sites with lower SOC contents in the control treatment (conventional tillage and mineral fertilization respectively). The data analysis indicated that various European arable agroecosystems benefit both from diversified cropping systems and the adoption of environmentally friendly farming management and are thereby capable to increase SOC contents.
Highlights
Agricultural land accounts for almost half (47%) of the total land area in the European Union [1], with about 60% of agricultural land covered by arable, mostly annual crops, 33% by perennial grassland and meadows, and less than 7% by permanent crops [2]
Our results show that organic fertilization together with conservation tillage improves the soil organic carbon (SOC) content, but still the SOC content would only increase in the upper layers; better results would derive by the implementation of crop rotations that allocate C input to deeper layers
In the case of No tillage (NT) the positive effect was only observed in the upper soil layers which points to the need to develop conservation tillage systems closer to conservation agriculture systems to increase the SOC content of the deeper soil layers
Summary
Agricultural land accounts for almost half (47%) of the total land area in the European Union [1], with about 60% of agricultural land covered by arable, mostly annual crops, 33% by perennial grassland and meadows, and less than 7% by permanent crops [2]. Negative impacts on agroecosystem services and on the environment have emerged [4], such as soil degradation, depletion of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks, water contamination and eutrophication, and loss of biodiversity [5]. In Europe, present efforts to reduce negative environmental impact of intensive agriculture [6] are mostly dedicated to reducing external inputs (e.g., inorganic fertilizers) and the consumption of non-renewable resources (e.g., fossil fuels). In addition to savings in energy and labor, reduced tillage intensity can protect soil from erosion or losses of organic matter in the topsoil [9]. A more complex management change with diverse rotation and permanent soil cover coupled with conservation tillage may reduce the environmental impact of agriculture [10,11]
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