Author: Anna Marie Cates Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 128
Book Description
Cover crops, or the practice of adding an unharvested crop to an annual crop rotation, are increasing in popularity and widely recommended to help retain soil, water, and nutrients on agricultural land. However, the ability of cover crops to improve soil health and sequester soil C remains unknown. Cover crops are thought likely to increase soil C because they add diversity in C inputs and increase the total growing season, but the magnitude and probability of this effect in different systems is critical for informing our understanding of cover crop efficacy and making recommendations to growers. In addition, cover crops may impact biogeochemical cycling and soil processes via changing the abiotic environment. Motivated by the need for detailed evidence of cover crop efficacy at multiple scales, I combined field-based evaluation of cover crop effects on the C cycle with an investigation into mechanisms of C storage under varying abiotic conditions. In Chapter 1, I review establishment constraints and variability in production to argue that cover cropping in northern climates requires specific agronomic systems and "buy-in" from farmers and government agencies. In Chapter 2, I used a biometric approach to the net ecosystem C balanced (NECB) of maize-cover crop and found that grain maize's NECB hovered near zero, suggesting that with or without cover crops the systems had marginal ability to increase soil C. Silage maize's NECB was always negative, despite greater rye biomass. In Chapter 3, I carried out a litterbag experiment on maize residue decomposition, soil or litter microbial decomposer community and analyzed particulate organic matter (POM) and potentially mineralizable C (PMC) as indices of active C. We found that cover crops did not alter microbial composition or maize residue decomposition rate. We observed increases in PMC and POM-C with cover crops, which were correlated with total NPP. In Chapter 4, we report on a laboratory incubation evaluating whether temperature and moisture effect on physical protection of decomposing plant litter C. We found that higher temperatures increased C mineralization, shifted bacterial composition, and decreased efficiency of conversion of litter C to soil C, but dry conditions increased soil aggregation.
Author: Andy Clark Publisher: DIANE Publishing ISBN: 1437903797 Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 248
Book Description
Cover crops slow erosion, improve soil, smother weeds, enhance nutrient and moisture availability, help control many pests and bring a host of other benefits to your farm. At the same time, they can reduce costs, increase profits and even create new sources of income. You¿ll reap dividends on your cover crop investments for years, since their benefits accumulate over the long term. This book will help you find which ones are right for you. Captures farmer and other research results from the past ten years. The authors verified the info. from the 2nd ed., added new results and updated farmer profiles and research data, and added 2 chap. Includes maps and charts, detailed narratives about individual cover crop species, and chap. about aspects of cover cropping.
Author: Jerry L. Hatfield Publisher: John Wiley & Sons ISBN: 0891188533 Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 432
Book Description
Degradation of soils continues at a pace that will eventually create a local, regional, or even global crisis when diminished soil resources collide with increasing climate variation. It's not too late to restore our soils to a more productive state by rediscovering the value of soil management, building on our well-established and ever-expanding scientific understanding of soils. Soil management concepts have been in place since the cultivation of crops, but we need to rediscover the principles that are linked together in effective soil management. This book is unique because of its treatment of soil management based on principles—the physical, chemical, and biological processes and how together they form the foundation for soil management processes that range from tillage to nutrient management. Whether new to soil science or needing a concise reference, readers will benefit from this book's ability to integrate the science of soils with management issues and long-term conservation efforts.
Author: Charles L. Mohler Publisher: Natural Resource Agriculture and Engineering Service (Nraes) ISBN: 9781933395210 Category : Crop rotation Languages : en Pages : 156
Author: Chuck A. Ingels Publisher: University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources ISBN: 9781879906358 Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 172
Book Description
This guide features cutting-edge methods for using cover crops to enhance vineyard performance. Based on extensive research, this guide details technical and theoretical information on how cover crops affect vineyards and promote ecological stability. With how-to instructions for activities such as field application, this practical reference is a must-have for vineyard owners, managers, consultants, and pest control advisers.
Author: Joshua Smith Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 109
Book Description
In the United States, there is renewed interest in incorporating cover crops into agricultural systems to provide a variety of potential benefits related to soil quality, water quality, and greenhouse gas emissions. This study focused on assessing whether cover crops influence N 2 O and CO2 emissions in a central Illinois agricultural research field over two years (2011-2013) of cover crop growing seasons. Three winter cover crop systems, annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum ), cereal rye (Secale cereale ), and a cereal rye (2011)/ hairy vetch (Vicia villosa ) (2012) rotation were planted after fall 2011 and 2012 harvests. The field included a total of eight main plots, two of each treatment, and two no cover crop control plots. Soil carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and nitrous oxide (N2 O) fluxes were measured from the plots in a single corn (Zea mays ) - soybean (Glycine max ) system for two cover crop growing seasons. Fluxes of CO 2 and CO2 were measured in March 2012, August 2012, and February 2013. The CO2 flux measurements were performed by using an infrared gas analyzer. The N2 O fluxes were analyzed from samples collected at 0, 10, 20, 30 min intervals from the same closed dynamic chamber system. Both CO2 and N2 O fluxes were computed from respective gas concentrations over time. Data were analyzed with a repeated measures mixed model procedure. N2 O fluxes from the cereal rye/hairy vetch plots were greater than the no cover control and annual ryegrass plots, suggesting that cover crops may not decrease N2 O fluxes immediately after being incorporated into a cropping system. In contrast, CO2 fluxes did not significantly differ among the treatments, but the cereal rye/hairy vetch plot sequestered ~100 kg C ha-1 of soil organic carbon (SOC). Overall, it was observed that some cover crop plots can have higher N2 O fluxes than plots without cover crops, but cover crops have the long-term potential to sequester C in croplands demonstrating that their use should still be considered a sustainable agriculture practice.
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Publisher: National Academies Press ISBN: 0309484529 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 511
Book Description
To achieve goals for climate and economic growth, "negative emissions technologies" (NETs) that remove and sequester carbon dioxide from the air will need to play a significant role in mitigating climate change. Unlike carbon capture and storage technologies that remove carbon dioxide emissions directly from large point sources such as coal power plants, NETs remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere or enhance natural carbon sinks. Storing the carbon dioxide from NETs has the same impact on the atmosphere and climate as simultaneously preventing an equal amount of carbon dioxide from being emitted. Recent analyses found that deploying NETs may be less expensive and less disruptive than reducing some emissions, such as a substantial portion of agricultural and land-use emissions and some transportation emissions. In 2015, the National Academies published Climate Intervention: Carbon Dioxide Removal and Reliable Sequestration, which described and initially assessed NETs and sequestration technologies. This report acknowledged the relative paucity of research on NETs and recommended development of a research agenda that covers all aspects of NETs from fundamental science to full-scale deployment. To address this need, Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration: A Research Agenda assesses the benefits, risks, and "sustainable scale potential" for NETs and sequestration. This report also defines the essential components of a research and development program, including its estimated costs and potential impact.
Author: Fred Magdoff Publisher: Sare ISBN: 9781888626131 Category : Humus Languages : en Pages : 294
Book Description
"'Published by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program, with funding from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture."
Author: Anna Marie Cates
Author: Andy Clark
Author: Bradley Eric Fronning
Author: Mandy Stoker
Author: Jerry L. Hatfield
Author: Charles L. Mohler
Author: Chuck A. Ingels
Author: Joshua Smith
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Author: Fred Magdoff