One of the principal aims of alternative cropping systems is to minimize excessive loss of N while maximizing N use efficiency and meeting crop N requirements. Many such cropping systems substitute intensive application of synthetic fertilizer with organic inputs, such as N2-fixing legumes. The effectiveness of legume residues as a N source for subsequent crops depends heavily on temporal N rel...

We monitored soil respiration (Rs), soil temperature (T) and volumetric water content (VWC%) over four years in one typical conventional and four alternative cropping systems to understand Rs in different cropping systems with their respective management practices and environmental conditions. The control was conventional double-cropping system (winter wheat and summer maize in one year--Con.W/...

crops every 3 yr) and even continuous (annual) cropping in some instances. For example, annualized grain yields Water is the principle limiting factor in dryland cropping systems. for WCF are 75 to 100% greater than WF (Peterson et Surface soil physical properties influence infiltration and cropping al., 2000). Cropping intensification has been possible systems under no-till management may affe...

BACKGROUND Reducing the risks and impacts of pesticide use on human health and on the environment is one of the objectives of the European Commission Directive 2009/128/EC in the quest for a sustainable use of pesticides. This Directive, developed through European national plans such as Ecophyto plan in France, promotes the introduction of innovative cropping systems relying, for example, on in...

The objective of this paper is to report the cumulative effects of cropping system intensification on the near surface soil physical properties (surface one inch of soil) within the Colorado dryland agroecoystem project, which has been in existence since 1986. Intensifying cropping systems from wheat-fallow to wheat-com-fallow to continuous cropping, increased crop residue return to the soil. R...

Maintenance and improvement of soil quality in continuous cropping systems is critical to sustaining agricultural productivity and environmental quality for future generations. This review focuses on lessons learned from long-term continuous cropping experiments. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is the most often reported attribute from long-term studies and is chosen as the most important indicator o...

than 90% were interested in using farm management decision support software (Frasier et al., 1997). The GPFARM is an ARS decision support system for strategic (longsame survey also showed that 57% of 219 producer term) planning. This study evaluated its performance for comparing alternative dryland no-till cropping systems and established limits of respondents were interested in a farm manageme...

tices on agroecosystem functions is necessary to determine the sustainability of cropping systems. Agricultural sustainability is enhanced by management practices Performance-based indices have been used to assess that optimize the performance of multiple agroecosystem functions. the effects of management practices on agroecosystem The performance of western Corn Belt cropping systems was evalu...

The effect of cropping system on the distribution of organic carbon (OC) and nitrogen (N) in soil aggregates has not been well addressed, which is important for understanding the sequestration of OC and N in agricultural soils. We analyzed the distribution of OC and N associated with soil aggregates in three unfertilized cropping systems in a 27-year field experiment: continuously cropped alfal...