Changes in soil organic matter over 70 years in continuous arable and ley-arable rotations on a sandy loam soil in England.

ABSTRACT: The sequestration in soil of organic carbon (SOC) derived from atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) by replacing arable crops with leys, has been measured over 70 years on a sandy loam soil. The experiment was designed initially to test the effect of leys on the yields of arable crops. A 3-year grazed grass with clover (grass + clover) ley in a 5-year rotation with arable crops increased percentage organic carbon (%OC) in the top 25 cm of the soil from 0.98 to 1.23 in 28 years, but with little further increase during the next 40 years with all-grass leys given fertilizer nitrogen (N). In this second period, OC inputs were balanced by losses, suggesting that about 1.3% OC might be near the equilibrium content for this rotation. Including 3-year lucerne (Medicago sativa) leys had litt

SUBMITTER: Johnston AE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5439491 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature