The Effect of Crop Diversification and Season on Microbial Carbon Use Efficiency Across a European Pedoclimatic Gradient

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60460709%3A41210%2F25%3A102545" target="_blank" >RIV/60460709:41210/25:102545 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70078" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70078</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70078" target="_blank" >10.1111/ejss.70078</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

The Effect of Crop Diversification and Season on Microbial Carbon Use Efficiency Across a European Pedoclimatic Gradient

Original language description

Microbial transformation of soil organic matter plays a critical role in carbon (C) cycling making it essential to understand how land use and management practices influence microbial physiology and its connection to C dynamics. One factor that is likely to impact soil microbial physiology is crop diversification via its influence on belowground diversity (e.g., chemical heterogeneity of C inputs, microbial community composition). However, the effect of crop diversification measures on microbial physiology and potential effects on C cycling in agricultural soils is still unclear. To address this knowledge gap, we sampled topsoil from eight experimental sites covering different crop diversification measures across Europe (i.e., cover crops, ley farming, vegetation stripes). We used the 18O-labelling method to analyse microbial C use efficiency (CUE), growth, respiration and biomass C. Additionally, a second sampling at five selected sites examined whether the growing season influenced the impact of crop diversification. Meta-analysis revealed no overall effect of crop diversification on CUE, microbial activity, biomass or soil organic C (SOC). However, the effects varied with the type of diversification measure: cover crops did not affect carbon processing, vegetation stripes increased microbial activity, and ley farming enhanced CUE. The largest variation in CUE was observed between samplings at the same sites, indicating seasonal dynamics. Temperature, precipitation and photosynthetically active radiation predicted seasonal variation in CUE (R-2 = 0.36). While cover crops did not significantly impact C storage in our study, both ley farming and vegetation stripes increased SOC. The overall effect of crop diversification on SOC seems to be decoupled from highly temporally variable CUE in the bulk soil and rather relate to C-inputs.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

40101 - Agriculture

Project

—

Continuities

R - Projekt Ramcoveho programu EK

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

European Journal of Soil Science

ISSN

1351-0754

e-ISSN

1365-2389

Volume of the periodical

76

Issue of the periodical within the volume

2

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

15

Pages from-to

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UT code for WoS article

001432429600001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85219086110