Functional Diversity in Cover Crops and Ecosystem Services PDF Download
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Author: George Neil Furey
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Author: George Neil Furey
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Author: Andy Clark
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1437903797
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 248
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Book Description
Cover crops slow erosion, improve soil, smother weeds, enhance nutrient and moisture availability, help control many pests and bring a host of other benefits to your farm. At the same time, they can reduce costs, increase profits and even create new sources of income. You¿ll reap dividends on your cover crop investments for years, since their benefits accumulate over the long term. This book will help you find which ones are right for you. Captures farmer and other research results from the past ten years. The authors verified the info. from the 2nd ed., added new results and updated farmer profiles and research data, and added 2 chap. Includes maps and charts, detailed narratives about individual cover crop species, and chap. about aspects of cover cropping.
Author: Denise Finney
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Designing multifunctional agroecosystems that provide a diverse suite of ecosystem services is essential to human well-being. Among the most indispensable agroecosystem services are those related to nitrogen (N), an essential nutrient for crop growth that has become one of the most pervasive pollutants of our time. Applying ecological principles to manage N is a viable strategy to optimize agricultural N cycling. The goals of this dissertation research were to: (1) identify key drivers of N dynamics in systems using ecologically-based nutrient management (ENM) and (2) determine if and how aboveground diversity in ENM supports N-related and other ecosystem services. Using data from a five year study of four organic cropping systems, I employed recursive partitioning models to pinpoint management and environment factors that drive soil inorganic N (SIN) dynamics in ENM and identify conditions under which elevated SIN leads to N leaching loss. I found that social factors from farmer decisions to national policies shape the extent to which ENM can effectively promote multiple N-related services and identified tillage as a key leverage point that shapes N cycling in ENM. In a two year field study of cover crop systems ranging in diversity from one to eight species, I focused my investigation of ENM on the impacts of aboveground diversity (an ecological principle frequently applied in ENM) on five ecosystem services. This research showed that just as aboveground diversity enhances ecosystem function in natural systems, cover crop diversity enhances ecosystem services in agroecosystems. This experiment also tested several paths by which cover crop diversity impacts N retention, N provision, N supply, weed suppression, subsequent crop yield, and multifunctionality. Aboveground, individual ecosystem services were correlated with cover crop productivity and the carbon:nitrogen ratio of cover crop biomass. Belowground, cover crops exerted species-specific influences on microbial community structure and increasing cover crop diversity was positively correlated with microbial functional diversity, two linkages that may impact ecosystem services from diverse mixtures. Using an array of diversity indices, I also found direct effects of cover crop diversity on ecosystem services, and concluded that achieving multifunctionality with cover crops requires not only increased species richness, but also functional diversity.
Author: Humberto Blanco
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0891186417
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 260
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Book Description
Cover Crops and Soil Ecosystem Services A comprehensive resource on cover crops and their role in soil ecosystems Cover crops are a reemerging strategy to improve and maintain the services that soils provide. They can have an enormous affect on agricultural outcomes, preventing soil erosion, restoring vital soil nutrients, sequestering C from the atmosphere, and more. The successful management and use of cover crops is therefore critical to ensure soil ecosystem services are maintained or improved not only to meet our demands for food, fuel, fiber, and feed but also to reduce pollution and improve the soil. Cover Crops and Soil Ecosystem Services provides a heavily researched and highly readable introduction to cover crops and their role in soil ecosystems. It ranges from a detailed discussion of cover crop biomass production to a thorough treatment of soil ecosystems and their vulnerabilities. The result is an essential guide to a critical area of agricultural science. Cover Crops and Soil Ecosystem Services readers will also find: Detailed treatment of cover crop biomass production, soil erosion, greenhouse gas fluxes, nitrate leaching, soil C sequestration, and more Discussion of emerging issues, including extreme weather events and the economics of cover crop farming Wide-ranging summaries of interdisciplinary soil and cover crop research Cover Crops and Soil Ecosystem Services is a useful reference for students and researchers at all levels of study relating to cover crop agriculture.
Author: Rosa A. Scherson
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319931458
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 223
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Book Description
“Biodiversity” refers to the variety of life. It is now agreed that there is a “biodiversity crisis”, corresponding to extinction rates of species that may be 1000 times what is thought to be “normal”. Biodiversity science has a higher profile than ever, with the new Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services involving more than 120 countries and 1000s of scientists. At the same time, the discipline is re-evaluating its foundations – including its philosophy and even core definitions. The value of biodiversity is being debated. In this context, the tree of life (“phylogeny”) is emerging as an important way to look at biodiversity, with relevance cutting across current areas of concern – from the question of resilience within ecosystems, to conservation priorities for globally threatened species – while capturing the values of biodiversity that have been hard to quantify, including resilience and maintaining options for future generations. This increased appreciation of the importance of conserving “phylogenetic diversity”, from microbial communities in the human gut to global threatened species, has inevitably resulted in an explosion of new indices, methods, and case studies. This book recognizes and responds to the timely opportunity for synthesis and sharing experiences in practical applications. The book recognizes that the challenge of finding a synthesis, and building shared concepts and a shared toolbox, requires both an appreciation of the past and a look into the future. Thus, the book is organized as a flow from history, concepts and philosophy, through to methods and tools, and followed by selected case studies. A positive vision and plan of action emerges from these chapters, that includes coping with inevitable uncertainties, effectively communicating the importance of this “evolutionary heritage” to the public and to policy-makers, and ultimately contributing to biodiversity conservation policy from local to global scales.
Author: Rafiq Islam
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 100040711X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327
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Book Description
This book will not serve as the "encyclopedia of cover crop management," but it’s close. The benefits of a wide range of individual cover crops and blends/mixes for specific agronomic crop rotations and geographic locations are included. Descriptions, photographs, and illustrations show how cover crops look in the field, including plant height, leaf architecture, and rooting patterns. Long term benefits are described for soil health, soil structure, water quality, nutrient contributions, soil biodiversity, air quality and climate change. In addition to the "whys" of cover crop use, the book includes details on the "hows:" how to choose cover crops for specific applications and locations; how (and when) to plant; how to manage and maintain the cover for maximum benefit; and how and when to terminate. Planting options include: drilling/planting between rows of an agronomic crop at planting time, or when the crop is short (i.e. corn in early June); "aerial" seeding with an airplane or high-clearance machine shortly before the crop reaches maturity; and drilling/planting immediately after harvest of the agronomic crop. Selected cover crops (blends) can help with pest and disease management. Cover crops are an economic input with an expected return on investment, similar to pesticides and fertilizer. As part of a continuous no-till system, cover crops provide long-term biological, chemical and structural benefits. The resulting increase in soil organic matter means the agronomic crop yields benefit from better water infiltration and water holding capacity, greater availability of nitrogen and other nutrients, deeper rooting, and increased soil microbial activity in the root zone.
Author: Sara Carabajal
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781088341278
Category : Agronomy
Languages : en
Pages : 57
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Book Description
Interseeding cover crops into standing annual crops can promote environmental benefits within agroecosystems. However, seeding method and cover crop diversity may influence biomass production and activity-density of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Carabids abundant in agroecosystems and their granivorous behavior can impact weeds and potentially crops. In a two-year study, six annual cover crop species– planted as either single species or mixtures– were interseeded into standing corn. The seed predation rate of Harpalus, a granivorous carabid, was estimated in a no-choice experiment using weed and crop seed species. Higher crop diversity did not correlate with biomass yield, but cover crop species did. Carabid activity-density was significantly higher later in the season, but was not influenced by diversity or species. Harpalus consumed crop seeds, but preferred weed seed. With further experimentation and analysis, these results can inform farmers in choosing the most effective seeding method and seed type for interseeded cover crop establishment.
Author: Michael J. Goss
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0128042869
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 255
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Book Description
Functional Diversity of Mycorrhiza and Sustainable Agriculture is the first book to present the core concepts of working with Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to improve agricultural crop productivity. Highlighting the use of indigenous AM fungi for agriculture, the book includes details on how to maintain and promote AM fungal diversity to improve sustainability and cost-effectiveness. As the need to improve production while restricting scarce inputs and preventing environmental impacts increases, the use of AMF offers an important option for exploiting the soil microbial population. It can enhance nutrient cycling and minimize the impacts of biotic and abiotic stresses, such as soil-borne disease, drought, and metal toxicity. The book offers land managers, policymakers, soil scientists, and agronomists a novel approach to utilizing soil microbiology in improving agricultural practices. Provides a new approach to exploiting the benefits of mycorrhizas for sustainable arable agricultural production using indigenous AMF populations and adopting appropriate crop production techniques Bridges the gap between soil microbiology, including increasing knowledge of mycorrhiza and agronomy Presents real-world practical insights and application-based results, including a chapter focused primarily on case studies Includes extensive illustrative diagrams and photographs
Author: Gilles Lemaire
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0128110511
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 478
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Book Description
Agro-Ecosystem Diversity: Impact on Food Security and Environmental Quality presents cutting-edge exploration of developing novel farming systems and introduces landscape ecology to agronomy. It encompasses the broad range of links between agricultural development and ecological impact and how to limit the potential negative results. Presented in seven sections, each focusing on a specific challenge to sustaining diversity, the book provides insights toward the argument that by re-introducing diversity, it should be possible to maintain a high level of productivity of agro-ecosystems while also maintaining and/or restoring a satisfactory level of environment quality and biodiversity. Demonstrates that diversified agro-ecosystems can be intensified with environmental quality preserved, restored and enhanced Includes analysis of economic constraints leading to specialization of farms and regions and the social locking forces resisting to diversification of agro-ecosystems Presents a global vision of world agriculture and the tradeoff between a necessary increase in food production and restoring environment quality
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781921531262
Category : Agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 258
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Book Description
Biological nitrogen fixation. Why, when an how to measure nitrogen fixation. Analysis of nitrogen. Nitrogen Balance Method. Nitrogen Difference method. Ureide (N solute) metode. N-isotopic methods. N-abundance method. N isotopic ditution method. prcaution whenquantifying N2 fixation associated with no-nodulatin plants (associative N2 fixation). Assays of nitrogenase activity.
