Integrated rather than organic farming history facilitates soil nitrogen turnover and N2O reduction in a green rye – silage maize cropping sequence

Abstract

Soil gross mineral N production and consumption processes are crucial regulators of plant productivity and N loss from croplands. Substituting synthetic fertilizers by integrating legumes in cultivation systems is common in organic farming, but research on its long-term impact on dynamics of gross soil N transformation and associated environmental N loss is scarce. In particular, studies at a temporal resolution that allows for a mechanistic understanding of long-term effects of organic farming are missing. Therefore, we determined gross N turnover rates of ammonification, nitrification, and ammonium and nitrate immobilization at monthly temporal resolution during a full green rye-maize cropping sequence. Measurements were carried out at sites with same pedo-climatic background but organic farming (OF) and integrated farming (IF) history. During green rye growing, N turnover rates for OF and IF were low and not significantly different, likely owing to low temperatures. During silage maize growing, IF exhibited significantly higher average N turnover rates of 1.86, 4.46, and 5.57 mg N kg⁻¹ dry soil d⁻¹ for gross ammonification, ammonium immobilization, and nitrate immobilization, respectively, compared to OF values of 1.11, 1.80, and 2.90 mg N kg⁻¹ dry soil d⁻¹. The significantly higher N turnover rates were likely due to higher soil organic C, N and microbial biomass which result from different long-term management practices. Especially the increased immobilization potential on the IF site contributed to significantly lower area-scaled N₂O emissions (1.45 vs. 4.36 kg N ha⁻¹) during periods of high nitrification. This shows that for low SOC soils, integrated farming history with high C return enhances soil N cycling and reduces the risk of N losses in the form of N₂O emission.