New publication from the EJP-Soil project EnergyLink

In the EJP-Soil project EnergyLink, we investigated how different crop diversification measures (i.e. cover crops, ley farming, vegetation stripes) affect microbial carbon (C) transformation in agricultural soils, and how this links to SOC storage. Soil from eight experimental sites across a pedoclimatic European gradient were sampled and analysed using the ¹⁸O-labelling method (C_respiration, C_growth, CUE, microbial biomass C). Additionally, a second sampling at five selected sites examined whether the growing season influenced the impact of crop diversification. We used a meta-analysis approach to deal with the heterogenous experimental designs.

No overall effect of crop diversification on CUE, microbial activity, biomass or SOC was found. However, the effects varied with the type of diversification measure: cover crops did not affect carbon processing, vegetation stripes increased microbial activity, and ley farming enhanced CUE. The largest variation in CUE was observed between samplings at the same sites, indicating seasonal dynamics. Temperature, precipitation and photosynthetically active radiation predicted seasonal variation in CUE.

While cover crops did not significantly impact C storage in our study, both ley farming and vegetation stripes increased SOC. The overall effect of crop diversification on SOC seems to be decoupled from highly temporally variable CUE in the bulk soil and rather relate to C inputs.

https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70078