Increased biomass yield and soil carbon and nitrogen content with perennial crops: Insights from soil microbiology

TY - ABST

T1 - Increased biomass yield and soil carbon and nitrogen content with perennial crops

T2 - XVII. Congress of the European Society for Agronomy

AU - Chen, Ji

AU - Li, Yue

AU - Zong, Mingming

AU - Hu, Yuanliu

AU - Manevski, Kiril

AU - Jørgensen, Uffe

PY - 2022/9

Y1 - 2022/9

N2 - Sustainable refining of biomass requires increased biomass yield while protecting soil carbon (C) stock. Here, we compared 14 different cropping systems grown on a sandy loam soil in central Denmark, including (1) two continuous monocultures of annual crops, (2) one conventional crop rotation, (3) four optimized crop rotations, (3) five intensively fertilized perennial grasses, and (4) two grass-legume mixtures without nitrogen (N) fertilization. Our results showed that biomass yield and yield stability differed highly across the cropping systems, highlighting crop-specific characteristics. Of all the cropping systems, tall fescue significantly increased soil C and N content by 7% for both, while sustaining high biomass yield and yield stability compared to the other annual crops. Increases in soil C stock were positively and significantly correlated with biomass yield (R2 = 0.175, p = 0.007), suggesting a win-win strategy for climate mitigation and food security by promoting land conversion from annual to perennial crops. We also compared soil extracellular enzyme activity (EEA) between annual and perennial crops. These results showed significantly reduced oxidative carbon-degrading EEAs by 79% for tall fescue, concomitant with the increased soil C content for this perennial grass, compared to triticale. Moreover, tall fescue significantly increased EEAs targeting soil N and phosphorus cycling by 28-29% compared to triticale, supporting the emerging findings that perennial crops can be more resource efficient. Altogether, our results provide novel perspectives from soil EEAs to advance the understanding of climate-smart and resource-efficient perennial agroecosystems targeting refining of biomass.

AB - Sustainable refining of biomass requires increased biomass yield while protecting soil carbon (C) stock. Here, we compared 14 different cropping systems grown on a sandy loam soil in central Denmark, including (1) two continuous monocultures of annual crops, (2) one conventional crop rotation, (3) four optimized crop rotations, (3) five intensively fertilized perennial grasses, and (4) two grass-legume mixtures without nitrogen (N) fertilization. Our results showed that biomass yield and yield stability differed highly across the cropping systems, highlighting crop-specific characteristics. Of all the cropping systems, tall fescue significantly increased soil C and N content by 7% for both, while sustaining high biomass yield and yield stability compared to the other annual crops. Increases in soil C stock were positively and significantly correlated with biomass yield (R2 = 0.175, p = 0.007), suggesting a win-win strategy for climate mitigation and food security by promoting land conversion from annual to perennial crops. We also compared soil extracellular enzyme activity (EEA) between annual and perennial crops. These results showed significantly reduced oxidative carbon-degrading EEAs by 79% for tall fescue, concomitant with the increased soil C content for this perennial grass, compared to triticale. Moreover, tall fescue significantly increased EEAs targeting soil N and phosphorus cycling by 28-29% compared to triticale, supporting the emerging findings that perennial crops can be more resource efficient. Altogether, our results provide novel perspectives from soil EEAs to advance the understanding of climate-smart and resource-efficient perennial agroecosystems targeting refining of biomass.

M3 - Conference abstract in proceedings

SP - 40

BT - Book of abstracts: XVII. Congress of the European Society for Agronomy

PB - Leibniz- Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF)

CY - Germany

Y2 - 29 August 2022 through 2 September 2022

ER -