Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Soil Science
A 20-year comparison in California’s Central Valley found that reduced tillage with cover crops produced more stable soil aggregates, greater water retention and different forms of carbon protection than standard tillage without cover crops. The conservation system also retained room for additional carbon storage, although the study measured potential rather than future gains.
A study projects higher temperatures and lower rainfall around Ethiopia’s Maze National Park by 2050 under two climate scenarios. It also finds that land-use planning could lead to declines in several ecosystem services under business as usual, but gains under a governance-focused scenario.
On a steep hillside in northwestern Benin, circular and rectangular honeycomb-shaped stone arrangements reduced runoff and soil loss compared with ordinary contour stone rows. When paired with reduced fertilizer doses, the circular layout was associated with 87.42% more sorghum grain yield than the standard stone-row treatment.
Mediterranean dryland crops face cycles of drought and then sudden rain. In a year-long field experiment, researchers found that the biggest bursts of nitrogen pollution in the form of nitrous oxide and nitric oxide followed rewetting, especially when plants had been stressed by drought. Soil texture changed how much inorganic nitrogen built up, but it did not lead to proportionally larger gas spikes.
