Demands upon the sustainability of farming are increasing in step with climate change and diversity loss. Organic farming offers a viable approach. To further improve organic management, three strategies with potential to enhance soil quality are being tested in a long-term trial since 2002 on a clay loam in temperate Switzerland: reduced tillage vs. ploughing, solid vs. liquid...
outside in the field all year round. Author Contributions Conceptualization: Roman HuÈppi, Johan Six, Jens Leifeld. Data curation: Roman HuÈppi, Maike Krauss. Project administration: Jens Leifeld
BackgroundStable soil aggregates are essential for optimal crop growth and preventing soil erosion. However, tillage is often used in agriculture to loosen the soil, which disrupts the integrity of these aggregates. Soil aggregation can be enhanced by bacteria through their ability to produce exopolysaccharides and lipopolysaccharides. These compounds stabilize soil aggregates by...
Agricultural practices contribute considerably to emissions of greenhouse gases. So far, knowledge on the impact of organic compared to non-organic farming on soil-derived nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) emissions is limited. We investigated N2O and CH4 fluxes with manual chambers during 571 days in a grass-clover– silage maize – green manure cropping sequence in the long...
