Carbon, Nitrogen and Phosphorus Cycling in Cropland and Grassland Ecosystems

• Published in: Agronomy (Basel) Vol. 11; no. 8; p. 1453
• Main Author: Klumpp, Katja
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.08.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Agricultural land; Agricultural practices; Agroforestry; agronomy; Biomass; biomass production; carbon; Carbon cycle; Chickpeas; Coffee; Crop yield; cropland; Cultivars; Cycles; Efficiency; Environmental Sciences; Fertilizers; Global Changes; Grain; Grasslands; humans; Intercropping; Land use; Legumes; Livestock; Manures; Monoculture; n/a; Nitrogen; Nutrient cycles; Organic matter; Phosphatase; Phosphorus; Rhizosphere; Soil fertility; Soil improvement; Soil organic matter; Sole cropping; Sorghum; Sustainable use; Triticum durum; Wheat; Italy
• ISSN: 2073-4395; 2073-4395
• DOI: 10.3390/agronomy11081453

Among the strategies towards sustainable land use, integrated crop–livestock systems (ICLS) have gained additional interest concerning improvements of soil fertility and nutrient cycling [9,10]. Besides recoupling of nutrient cycles, an additional inclusion of agroforestry in those systems may provide further benefits such as shelter and shade for animals [4]. Both the aboveground biomass and grain yield and, consequently, the amount of N taken up by intercropped durum wheat increased significantly (44%, 48%, and 30%, respectively) compared with sole cropping. [...]intercropped chickpea considerably increased N (49%) and P (75%) availability in durum wheat rhizosphere, grain yield, and resource N- and P-use efficiency, underlining the beneficial effect of chickpea intercropping. Besides nutrient improvements, intercropping may be used as agricultural practice to improve the soil organic matter in nutrient imbalanced degraded long-term monocultures. [...]combined methods might sometimes be useful to restore soil fertility.