Abstract
Conservation agriculture has been shown to have multiple benefits for soils, crop yield and the environment, and consequently, no-till, the central practice of conservation agriculture, has rapidly expanded. However, studies show that the potential for carbon (C) sequestration in no-till farming sometimes is not realized, let alone the ability to maintain or improve crop yield. Here we present a global analysis of no-till induced changes of soil C and crop yield based on 260 and 1,970 paired studies, respectively. We show that, relative to local conventional tillage, arid regions can benefit the most from conservation agriculture by achieving a win-win outcome of enhanced C sequestration and increased crop yield. However, more humid regions are more likely to increase SOC only, while some colder regions have yield losses with soil C loss as likely as soil C gains. In addition to site-specific characteristics and management, a careful assessment of the regional climate is needed to determine the potential benefits of adopting conservation agriculture.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 3325-3335 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Global Change Biology |
Volume | 26 |
Issue number | 6 |
Early online date | 8 Feb 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2020 |
Keywords
- climate
- conservation agriculture
- crop yield
- meta-analysis
- soil organic carbon
- win-win outcome
- MATTER
- METAANALYSIS
- ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
- BULK-DENSITY
- VARIABILITY
- ORGANIC-CARBON
- FERTILIZER
- NO-TILL
- IMPACTS
- STRATIFICATION