https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01480573/document

Soil carbon 4 per mille

No-till agriculture is generally considered good for soils, and probably also beneficial in relation to climate change adaptation. However, this Perspective argues that the potential for climate change mitigation through soil carbon sequestration that is possible from a change to no-till agriculture has been widely overstated.

Limited potential of no-till agriculture for climate change mitigation

Recent initiatives, such as the United Nations declaring 2015 as the International Year of Soils and the French « 4 per 1000 » initiative call attention on soils and on the importance of maintaining and increasing soil organic matter stocks for soil fertility and food security, and for climate change adaptation and mitigation. We stress that soil organic carbon storage (i.e. an increase of soil organic carbon stocks) should be clearly differentiated from soil organic carbon sequestration, as the latter assumes a net removal of atmospheric CO2. Implementing management options that allow increasing soil organic carbon stocks at the local scale raises several questions, which are discussed in this article: how can we increase SOC stocks, at which rate and for how long; where do we prioritize SOC storage; how do we estimate the potential gain in C and which agricultural practices should we implement? We show that knowledge and tools are available to answer many of these questions, while further research remains necessary for others. A range of agricultural practices would require a re-assessment of their potential to store C and a better understanding of the underlying processes, such as no tillage and conservation agriculture, irrigation, practices increasing below ground inputs, organic amendments, and N fertilization. The vision emerging from the literature, showing the prominent role of soil microorganisms in the stabilization of soil organic matter, draw the attention to more exploratory potential levers, through changes in microbial physiology or soil biodiversity induced by agricultural practices, that require in-depth research.

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01789417/document

Increasing organic stocks in agricultural soils: Knowledge gaps and potential innovations

Cover crops play an increasingly important role in improving soil quality, reducing agricultural inputs and improving environmental sustainability. The main objectives of this critical global review and systematic analysis were to assess cover crop practices in the context of their impacts on nitrogen leaching, net greenhouse gas balances (NGHGB) and crop productivity. Only studies that investigated the impacts of cover crops and measured one or a combination of nitrogen leaching, soil organic carbon (SOC), nitrous oxide (N2 O), grain yield and nitrogen in grain of primary crop, and had a control treatment were included in the analysis. Long-term studies were uncommon, with most data coming from studies lasting 2-3 years. The literature search resulted in 106 studies carried out at 372 sites and covering different countries, climatic zones and management. Our analysis demonstrates that cover crops significantly (p   0.05) effects on direct N2 O emissions. Cover crops could mitigate the NGHGB by 2.06 ± 2.10 Mg CO2 -eq ha-1  year-1 . One of the potential disadvantages of cover crops identified was the reduction in grain yield of the primary crop by ≈4%, compared to the control treatment. This drawback could be avoided by selecting mixed cover crops with a range of legumes and non-legumes, which increased the yield by ≈13%. These advantages of cover crops justify their widespread adoption. However, management practices in relation to cover crops will need to be adapted to specific soil, management and regional climatic conditions.

/pdf/a-critical-review-of-the-impacts-of-cover-crops-on-nitrogen-5e7k9rqokw.pdf

A critical review of the impacts of cover crops on nitrogen leaching, net greenhouse gas balance and crop productivity.

The international 4 per 1000 initiative aims at supporting states and non-governmental stakeholders in their efforts towards a better management of soil carbon (C) stocks. These stocks depend on soil C inputs and outputs. They are the result of fine spatial scale interconnected mechanisms, which stabilise/destabilise organic matter-borne C. Since 2016, the CarboSMS consortium federates French researchers working on these mechanisms and their effects on C stocks in a local and global change setting (land use, agricultural practices, climatic and soil conditions, etc.). This article is a synthesis of this consortium’s first seminar. In the first part, we present recent advances in the understanding of soil C stabilisation mechanisms comprising biotic and abiotic processes, which occur concomitantly and interact. Soil organic C stocks are altered by biotic activities of plants (the main source of C through litter and root systems), microorganisms (fungi and bacteria) and ‘ecosystem engineers’ (earthworms, termites, ants). In the meantime, abiotic processes related to the soil-physical structure, porosity and mineral fraction also modify these stocks. In the second part, we show how agricultural practices affect soil C stocks. By acting on both biotic and abiotic mechanisms, land use and management practices (choice of plant species and density, plant residue exports, amendments, fertilisation, tillage, etc.) drive soil spatiotemporal organic inputs and organic matter sensitivity to mineralisation. Interaction between the different mechanisms and their effects on C stocks are revealed by meta-analyses and long-term field studies. The third part addresses upscaling issues. This is a cause for major concern since soil organic C stabilisation mechanisms are most often studied at fine spatial scales (mm–μm) under controlled conditions, while agricultural practices are implemented at the plot scale. We discuss some proxies and models describing specific mechanisms and their action in different soil and climatic contexts and show how they should be taken into account in large scale models, to improve change predictions in soil C stocks. Finally, this literature review highlights some future research prospects geared towards preserving or even increasing C stocks, our focus being put on the mechanisms, the effects of agricultural practices on them and C stock prediction models.

/pdf/increasing-soil-carbon-storage-mechanisms-effects-of-14pfmzfw3e.pdf

Increasing soil carbon storage: mechanisms, effects of agricultural practices and proxies. A review

Long-term effect of contrasted tillage and crop management on soil carbon dynamics during 41 years

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Daniel Couture

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Long-term effect of contrasted tillage and crop management on soil carbon dynamics during 41 years