Concerns about rising greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations have spurred the promotion of no-tillage practices as a means to stimulate carbon storage and reduce CO2 emissions in agro-ecosystems. Recent research has ignited debate about the effect of earthworms on the GHG balance of soil. It is unclear how earthworms interact with soil management practices, making long-term predictions on their ef...

BACKGROUND Harnessing beneficial microbes presents a promising strategy to optimize plant growth and agricultural sustainability. Little is known to which extent and how specifically soil and plant microbiomes can be manipulated through different cropping practices. Here, we investigated soil and wheat root microbial communities in a cropping system experiment consisting of conventional and org...

Microbial diversity can be used to assess the impact of agricultural practices on the long-term sustainability of cropping systems. The aim of this study was to investigate changes in soil bacterial diversity as a result of the impact of different soil tillage and crop rotation systems in an oxisol of southern Brazil. Bacterial diversity was examined in the 010 cm layer in two field experiments...

Many decisions in agriculture are made over combinations of inputs and/or practices that may be complements. The presence of complementarity among producer decisions can have deep implications for market outcomes and for the effectiveness of policies intended to influence them. Identifying complementarity relations, however, is a challenging pursuit. Drawing on recent methodological advances, i...

In arable cropping systems, reduced or conservation tillage practices are linked with improved soil quality, C retention and higher microbial biomass, but most long-term studies rarely focus on depths greater than 15 cm nor allow comparison of microbial community responses to agricultural practices. We investigated microbial community structure in a long-term field trial (12-years, Lincoln, New...

Tillage practices and nitrogen (N) sources are important factors affecting rice production. Few studies, however, have examined the interactions between tillage practices and N fertilizer sources on NH3 volatilization, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), and rice grain yield. This study aimed to investigate the effects of N fertilizer sources (no N fertilizer, inorganic N fertilizer, organic N ferti...

This study evaluated microbial communities of soil (0–10 cm) as affected by dryland cropping systems under different tillage practices after 5 years. The soil type was an Olton sandy loam with an average of 16.4% clay, 67.6% sand and 0.65 g kg of organic matter (OM). The cropping systems evaluated were grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.)— cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) (Srg-Ct), cotton-winter rye (...

Although it is common to alternate between till and no-till practices, past research has considered farmers’ tillage options to be limited to the dichotomous choice of whether or not to switch to a long-term no-till regime. This paper expands farmers’ options and models their choices of tillage frequency. Less frequent tilling sequesters more carbon but permits a greater accumulation of weeds, ...