Balancing legume-cereal proportions in cover crop mixtures to minimize N2O emissions
Legume-cereal cover crop mixtures offer a promising approach to reduce nitrate leaching and enhancing soil fertility. However, the impacts of these mixtures on N2O emissions during both the cover cropping and post-incorporation phases, as well as the relative contribution of roots and shoots to N2O...
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Elsevier
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Geoderma |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016706125000333 |
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| author | Guillermo Guardia Diego Abalos Emanuele Ribatti Federico Ardenti Federico Capra Giacomo Mortella Vincenzo Tabaglio Miguel Ángel Ibáñez Ji Chen Andrea Fiorini |
| author_facet | Guillermo Guardia Diego Abalos Emanuele Ribatti Federico Ardenti Federico Capra Giacomo Mortella Vincenzo Tabaglio Miguel Ángel Ibáñez Ji Chen Andrea Fiorini |
| author_sort | Guillermo Guardia |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Legume-cereal cover crop mixtures offer a promising approach to reduce nitrate leaching and enhancing soil fertility. However, the impacts of these mixtures on N2O emissions during both the cover cropping and post-incorporation phases, as well as the relative contribution of roots and shoots to N2O emission, remain uncertain. To address these knowledge gaps, we conducted a two-phase greenhouse experiment. In the first phase, cover crops were grown encompassing six treatments: control (no cover crop), pure vetch (Vicia villosa Roth), pure rye (Secale cereale L.), and mixtures with 33 %, 50 % and 66 % of the pure rye sowing rate paired with 66 %, 50 % and 33 % of the pure vetch sowing rate, respectively. In the second phase, focusing on the post-incorporation effects, the same treatments were arranged in mesocosms with both roots and shoots, and in mesocosms with roots only. During the first phase, the proportion of fine/very fine roots and root length density were negatively correlated with mineral N content and N2O emissions. Mixing rye with vetch increased total dry biomass and N yield for all mixtures compared to rye alone. In mixtures, the proportion of fine roots, root length density, and the root C:N ratio decreased compared to rye. Most of the N2O emissions occurred after cover crop incorporation, with roots contributing more (average 57 %) than shoots (average 31 %). Total N2O emissions increased with increasing proportion of vetch, but the mixture with 33 % vetch and 66 % rye maintained N2O emissions as low as rye monoculture. Our study indicates that adjusting the seed proportion in legume-cereal mixtures serves as an effective tool to balance the benefits of pure legume (increased total biomass, and C and N yields) and pure cereal (decreased N2O emissions and soil mineral N pool) cover cropping. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2a34b9f06a334deaa449ea0ff6ea87d9 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1872-6259 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Geoderma |
| spelling | doaj-art-2a34b9f06a334deaa449ea0ff6ea87d92025-02-09T04:59:33ZengElsevierGeoderma1872-62592025-02-01454117195Balancing legume-cereal proportions in cover crop mixtures to minimize N2O emissionsGuillermo Guardia0Diego Abalos1Emanuele Ribatti2Federico Ardenti3Federico Capra4Giacomo Mortella5Vincenzo Tabaglio6Miguel Ángel Ibáñez7Ji Chen8Andrea Fiorini9Departamento de Química y Tecnología de Alimentos, ETSI Agronómica, Alimentaria y de Biosistemas, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain; Centro de Estudios e Investigación para la Gestión de Riesgos Agrarios y Medioambientales (CEIGRAM), Madrid, Spain; Department of Agroecology, Pioneer Center LandCRAFT, Aarhus University, Tjele, Denmark; Corresponding author at: Departamento de Química y Tecnología de Alimentos, ETSI Agronómica, Alimentaria y de Biosistemas, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.Department of Agroecology, Pioneer Center LandCRAFT, Aarhus University, Tjele, DenmarkDepartment of Sustainable Crop Production, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, ItalyDepartment of Sustainable Crop Production, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, ItalyDepartment of Sustainable Crop Production, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, ItalyDepartment of Sustainable Crop Production, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, ItalyDepartment of Sustainable Crop Production, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, ItalyDepartamento de Economía Agraria, ETSI Agronómica, Alimentaria y de Biosistemas, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, SpainState Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, ChinaDepartment of Sustainable Crop Production, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, ItalyLegume-cereal cover crop mixtures offer a promising approach to reduce nitrate leaching and enhancing soil fertility. However, the impacts of these mixtures on N2O emissions during both the cover cropping and post-incorporation phases, as well as the relative contribution of roots and shoots to N2O emission, remain uncertain. To address these knowledge gaps, we conducted a two-phase greenhouse experiment. In the first phase, cover crops were grown encompassing six treatments: control (no cover crop), pure vetch (Vicia villosa Roth), pure rye (Secale cereale L.), and mixtures with 33 %, 50 % and 66 % of the pure rye sowing rate paired with 66 %, 50 % and 33 % of the pure vetch sowing rate, respectively. In the second phase, focusing on the post-incorporation effects, the same treatments were arranged in mesocosms with both roots and shoots, and in mesocosms with roots only. During the first phase, the proportion of fine/very fine roots and root length density were negatively correlated with mineral N content and N2O emissions. Mixing rye with vetch increased total dry biomass and N yield for all mixtures compared to rye alone. In mixtures, the proportion of fine roots, root length density, and the root C:N ratio decreased compared to rye. Most of the N2O emissions occurred after cover crop incorporation, with roots contributing more (average 57 %) than shoots (average 31 %). Total N2O emissions increased with increasing proportion of vetch, but the mixture with 33 % vetch and 66 % rye maintained N2O emissions as low as rye monoculture. Our study indicates that adjusting the seed proportion in legume-cereal mixtures serves as an effective tool to balance the benefits of pure legume (increased total biomass, and C and N yields) and pure cereal (decreased N2O emissions and soil mineral N pool) cover cropping.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016706125000333Green manureGreenhouse gas emissionsNitrogen cyclingPulsesIntercroppingDenitrification |
| spellingShingle | Guillermo Guardia Diego Abalos Emanuele Ribatti Federico Ardenti Federico Capra Giacomo Mortella Vincenzo Tabaglio Miguel Ángel Ibáñez Ji Chen Andrea Fiorini Balancing legume-cereal proportions in cover crop mixtures to minimize N2O emissions Geoderma Green manure Greenhouse gas emissions Nitrogen cycling Pulses Intercropping Denitrification |
| title | Balancing legume-cereal proportions in cover crop mixtures to minimize N2O emissions |
| title_full | Balancing legume-cereal proportions in cover crop mixtures to minimize N2O emissions |
| title_fullStr | Balancing legume-cereal proportions in cover crop mixtures to minimize N2O emissions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Balancing legume-cereal proportions in cover crop mixtures to minimize N2O emissions |
| title_short | Balancing legume-cereal proportions in cover crop mixtures to minimize N2O emissions |
| title_sort | balancing legume cereal proportions in cover crop mixtures to minimize n2o emissions |
| topic | Green manure Greenhouse gas emissions Nitrogen cycling Pulses Intercropping Denitrification |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016706125000333 |
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