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Contributions from carbon and nitrogen in roots to closing the yield gap between conventional and organic cropping systems
Author(s) -
Córdoba E. M.,
Chirinda N.,
Li F.,
Olesen J. E.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
soil use and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.709
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1475-2743
pISSN - 0266-0032
DOI - 10.1111/sum.12427
Subject(s) - agronomy , crop rotation , soil carbon , soil water , cropping system , biomass (ecology) , green manure , organic matter , nitrogen , crop , total organic carbon , manure , soil organic matter , crop yield , environmental science , chemistry , biology , soil science , environmental chemistry , organic chemistry
This study investigates the effect of different crop rotation systems on carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) in root biomass as well as on soil organic carbon ( SOC ). Soils under spring barley and spring barley/pea mixture were sampled both in organic and conventional crop rotations. The amounts of root biomass and SOC in fine (250–253 μ m), medium (425–250 μ m) and coarse (>425 μ m) soil particulate organic matter ( POM ) were determined. Grain dry matter ( DM ) and the amount of N in harvested grain were also quantified. Organic systems with varying use of manure and catch crops had lower spring barley grain DM yield compared to those in conventional systems, whereas barley/pea showed no differences. The largest benefits were observed for grain N yields and grain DM yields for spring barley, where grain N yield was positively correlated with root N. The inclusion of catch crops in organic rotations resulted in higher root N and SOC (g C/m 2 ) in fine POM in soils under barley/pea. Our results suggest that manure application and inclusion of catch crops improve crop N supply and reduce the yield gap between conventional and organic rotations. The observed positive correlation between root N and grain N imply that management practices aimed at increasing grain N could also increase root N and thus enhance N supply for subsequent crops.