New SoilCare Publication: Hidden Miners: The role of cover crops and Soil microorganism in phosphorus cycling
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The SoilCare team from University of Hohenheim, Germany, has just published a meta-analysis of published field studies on cover crops and phosphorus cycling in the prestigious "Marschner Review" series.
Phosphorus (P) is often a limiting nutrient in agriculture and the use of P fertilisers can have negative impacts on the environment. There is increasing interest in the use of cover crops for the sustainable intensification of agriculture, however, their interactions with the soil microbial community, which is a key driver of P cycling, and their effects on the following crop, have not yet been systematically assessed.
The study found that decomposition dynamics, governed by P concentrations, are critical for the transfer of P from cover crop residues to the main crop. Also cover crops may enhance the soil microbial community by providing a legacy of increased mycorrhizal abundance, microbial biomass P, and phosphatase activity. Cover crops are generally most effective in systems low in available P, and may access 'unavailable' P pools. However, their effects on P availability are difficult to detect by standard soil P tests, except for increases after the use of Lupinus sp. Agricultural management (i.e. cover crop species selection, tillage, fertilization) can improve cover crop effects. They concluded that cover cropping has the potential to tighten nutrient cycling in agricultural systems under different conditions, increasing crop P nutrition and yield.
Hallama, M., Pekrun, C., Lambers, H., Kandeler, E. (2019) Hidden miners – the roles of cover crops and soil microorganisms in phosphorus cycling through agroecosystems, Plant Soil 434: 7.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-018-3810-7
For more information about the paper, please contact Moritz Hallama This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SoilCare planning updated
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The SoilCare planning has been updated as of January 10th 2019.
The new planning overview can be downloaded from the Planning and Monitoring page (for registered users only).
Work Package Leader meeting 3 Brussels - post meeting information available
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The presentations and meeting notes of the most recent Work Package Leader meeting 3 in Brussels, that was held on wednesday14th and thursday 15th November 2018, have been made available on the post-meeting page HERE (please login first before being able to access the page).
SoilCare and World Soil Day 2018
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Wageningen, The Netherlands – “We’ve identified and are testing potential cropping systems that don’t just improve agricultural soil quality, they boost profitability.” That’s the simple message Jane Mills from the EU-funded SoilCare project is sending to the farming sector this Word Soil Day (5th December 2018).
Farms of all scales – from small organic to large industrial – can implement SoilCare’s Soil-Improving Cropping Systems (SICSs) to potentially cut costs and/or increase yield and quality, while protecting long-term soil health. The optimisation techniques may mean agrochemical inputs like fertilisers and herbicides can be drastically reduced.
SoilCare’s SICS include crop rotation and cover crops, tillage, organic amendments (such as humic acid and green manure), mulches and organic techniques. The project team has identified some specific SICS for farmers to use in preventing a range of soil threats when growing specific crop-types. The team’s review of SICSs also features agronomic techniques that will help optimise any existing cropping system regardless of crop-type or context. “The 16 study sites in SoilCare are now testing a range of SICSs and we are looking forward to learning about their advantages and drawbacks,” says project coordinator Dr Rudi Hessel based at Wageningen Environmental Research in the Netherlands.
The team’s results are timely, coming ahead of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s World Soil Day, and against a backdrop of the deteriorating health of Europe’s agricultural soils caused by overexploitation and poor management. At a European level, soil erosion affects over 12 million hectares of land – about 7.2% of the total agricultural land – and leads to €1.25 billion loss in crop productivity.ased at Wageningen Environmental Research in the Netherlands.
As the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation uses World Soil Day to raise awareness about soil health, it may come as little surprise to find out that soil doesn’t just impact our food supplies, it also helps clean water and lower risks of floods and droughts. More surprising is the SoilCare team’s efforts to treat profitability for farmers as a central priority – a consideration many research projects on environmental health overlook.
The full SoilCare press release for World Soil Day 2018 can be downloaded HERE.
