The choice of crops and their management can strongly influence soil microbial communities and their processes. We used lipid biomarker profiling to characterize how soil microbial composition of five potential bioenergy cropping systems diverged from a common baseline five years after they were established. The cropping systems we studied included an annual system (continuous no-till corn) and...

Low-input cropping systems were introduced in Western Europe to reduce the environmental impacts of intensive farming, but some of their benefits are offset by lower yields. In this paper, we review studies that used Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to investigate the effects of reducing external inputs on the eco-efficiency of cropping systems, measured as the ratio of production to environmental i...

Contemporary crop production faces dual challenges of increasing crop yield while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emission. An integrated evaluation of the mitigation potential of yield-scaled nitrous oxide (N2O) emission by adjusting cropping practices can benefit the innovation of climate smart cropping. This study conducted a meta-analysis to assess the impact of cropping systems and ...

IPSIM (Injury Profile SIMulator) is a generic modelling framework presented in a companion paper. It aims at predicting a crop injury profile as a function of cropping practices and abiotic and biotic environment. IPSIM's modelling approach consists of designing a model with an aggregative hierarchical tree of attributes. In order to provide a proof of concept, a model, named IPSIM-Wheat-Eyespo...

As the Earth’s population continues to grow and demand for food increases, the need for improved and timely information related to the properties and dynamics of global agricultural systems is becoming increasingly important. Global land cover maps derived from satellite data provide indispensable information regarding the geographic distribution and areal extent of global croplands. However, l...

We evaluated the eff ects of irrigated crop management practices on nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from soil. Emissions were monitored from several irrigated cropping systems receiving N fertilizer rates ranging from 0 to 246 kg N ha−1 during the 2005 and 2006 growing seasons. Cropping systems included conventional-till (CT) continuous corn (Zea mays L.), no-till (NT) continuous corn, NT corn–dr...

Understanding soil microbial communities in agroecosystems has the potential to contribute to the improvement of agricultural productivity and sustainability. Effects of conversion from long-term wheat plantation to Jerusalem artichoke (JA) plantation on soil fungal communities were determined by amplicon sequencing of total fungal ITS regions. Quantitative PCR and PCR-denaturing gradient gel e...

9 CHILEAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 76(2) APRIL-JUNE 2016 Soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) root rot is an important disease of soybean under continuous cropping, and root rot is widely distributed throughout the world. This disease is extremely harmful, and it is difficult to prevent and control. The study aimed to elucidate the composition of root rot pathogenic fungal communities in th...

The present study dealt with the real-world problem of irrigation water management of evolving suitable cropping pattern, which should be in harmony with optimal operation of the multi-reservoir system in the basin. The Narmada river basin system, comprising 11 reservoirs either existing, planned or under construction, has been ®rst simulated and analyzed. The time horizon used to simulate the ...

Agricultural practices, including habitat alteration and application of agricultural chemicals, can impact wildlife resulting in their decline. Determining which of these practices are contributing to declines is essential if the declines are to be reversed. In this study, the health of two geographically separated sleepy lizard (Tiliqua rugosa) populations was compared between a rangeland envi...