Are there universal soil responses to cover cropping? A systematic review

Xiaoxiao Hao; Majdi Abou Najm; Kerri L Steenwerth; Mallika A Nocco; Christelle Basset; André Daccache

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160600

Are there universal soil responses to cover cropping? A systematic review

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Feb 25:861:160600. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160600. Epub 2022 Dec 5.

Authors

Xiaoxiao Hao¹, Majdi Abou Najm², Kerri L Steenwerth³, Mallika A Nocco⁴, Christelle Basset⁴, André Daccache⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA; College of Mechanics and Materials, Hohai University, Nanjing, China.
² Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. Electronic address: mabounajm@ucdavis.edu.
³ Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA; USDA-ARS, Crops Pathology and Genetics Research Unit, USA.
⁴ Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
⁵ Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.

PMID: 36470378
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160600

Abstract

Cover cropping is commonly acknowledged to promote soil health in agriculture. However, contradictory findings on the benefits of cover crops for soil health, crop productivity, economic and ecological factors, as well as the influence of inherent soil parameters on such benefits exist in the scientific literature. Here, we critically assessed evidence of cover crop benefits through a systematic review of the published literature. To access relevant papers, we searched the literature for cover crops and soil health indicators using Scopus (1996-2020), ScienceDirect (1996-2020) and Google scholar (1970-1996) with specific keywords and combinations. Only English research papers including experimental plots and control groups were considered. We analyzed 102 unique peer-reviewed papers and 1494 corresponding unique plots encompassing various cover crops, soil textures, climates, management systems and experimental duration (1-3 years, 4-6 years, 7-10 years and over 10 years). Strong evidence suggests that cover crops can enhance soil structure and promote soil health by improving soil physical and chemical properties, including saturated hydraulic conductivity (mean net change of 105.6 %), total organic carbon (10.1 %), and total nitrogen (20.2 %). On the other hand, cover crops exhibit weak effects on properties like bulk density and microporosity with fairly low values of net change. In most cases, cover crops increase the soil carbon content, including microbial biomass carbon (19.5 %) and particulate organic carbon (49.5 %). In this systematic review, we found limited studies on the effect of cover crops on soil health as influenced by soil texture, regional climate, rainfall and duration of the cover crop practices. The paucity of long-term regional systematic research of soil physics, chemistry and biology makes it difficult to forecast future implications of cover crops on soil health indicators.

Keywords: Cover crops; Soil health; Soil properties.

Publication types

Systematic Review
Review

MeSH terms

Agriculture*
Carbon
Crop Production
Crops, Agricultural
Soil* / chemistry

Substances

Soil
Carbon