Guodong Shao, Guntars O. Martinson, Marife D. Corre, Jie Luo, Dan Niu, Edzo Veldkamp
{"title":"Conversion of cropland monoculture to agroforestry increases methane uptake","authors":"Guodong Shao, Guntars O. Martinson, Marife D. Corre, Jie Luo, Dan Niu, Edzo Veldkamp","doi":"10.1007/s13593-024-00997-x","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>In temperate Europe, agroforestry practice is gaining interest due to its potential to enhance carbon (C) sequestration and mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in agriculture. To date, the effects of agroforestry on the spatial and temporal dynamics of soil carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) and methane (CH<sub>4</sub>) fluxes are still poorly quantified. Here we present a systematic comparison of soil CO<sub>2</sub> and CH<sub>4</sub> fluxes between agroforestry and monoculture cropland systems for the first time, based on two-year field measurements at three sites on different soils in Germany. Each site had an adjacent alley cropping agroforestry system and monoculture, and the agroforestry was established on former monoculture croplands 1 to 11 years prior to this study. We found that area-weighted soil CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from agroforestry (3.5−8.1 Mg C ha<sup>−1</sup> yr<sup>−1</sup>) were comparable to monocultures (3.4−9.8 Mg C ha<sup>−1</sup> yr<sup>−1</sup>), whereas area-weighted agroforestry generally had higher soil CH<sub>4</sub> uptake (0.4−1.3 kg C ha<sup>−1</sup> yr<sup>−1</sup>) compared to monocultures (0.1−1.2 kg C ha<sup>−1</sup> yr<sup>−1</sup>). Seasonal variations of soil CO<sub>2</sub> and CH<sub>4</sub> fluxes were strongly regulated by soil temperature and moisture, and the spatial variations were influenced by soil texture. Our results suggest that conversion of monoculture cropland to long-term alley cropping agroforestry system could be considered as a sustainable agriculture practice for its great potential for mitigating CH<sub>4</sub> emissions.</p>","PeriodicalId":7721,"journal":{"name":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","volume":"65 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Agronomy for Sustainable Development","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-024-00997-x","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"AGRONOMY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In temperate Europe, agroforestry practice is gaining interest due to its potential to enhance carbon (C) sequestration and mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in agriculture. To date, the effects of agroforestry on the spatial and temporal dynamics of soil carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes are still poorly quantified. Here we present a systematic comparison of soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes between agroforestry and monoculture cropland systems for the first time, based on two-year field measurements at three sites on different soils in Germany. Each site had an adjacent alley cropping agroforestry system and monoculture, and the agroforestry was established on former monoculture croplands 1 to 11 years prior to this study. We found that area-weighted soil CO2 emissions from agroforestry (3.5−8.1 Mg C ha−1 yr−1) were comparable to monocultures (3.4−9.8 Mg C ha−1 yr−1), whereas area-weighted agroforestry generally had higher soil CH4 uptake (0.4−1.3 kg C ha−1 yr−1) compared to monocultures (0.1−1.2 kg C ha−1 yr−1). Seasonal variations of soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes were strongly regulated by soil temperature and moisture, and the spatial variations were influenced by soil texture. Our results suggest that conversion of monoculture cropland to long-term alley cropping agroforestry system could be considered as a sustainable agriculture practice for its great potential for mitigating CH4 emissions.
期刊介绍:
Agronomy for Sustainable Development (ASD) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of international scope, dedicated to publishing original research articles, review articles, and meta-analyses aimed at improving sustainability in agricultural and food systems. The journal serves as a bridge between agronomy, cropping, and farming system research and various other disciplines including ecology, genetics, economics, and social sciences.
ASD encourages studies in agroecology, participatory research, and interdisciplinary approaches, with a focus on systems thinking applied at different scales from field to global levels.
Research articles published in ASD should present significant scientific advancements compared to existing knowledge, within an international context. Review articles should critically evaluate emerging topics, and opinion papers may also be submitted as reviews. Meta-analysis articles should provide clear contributions to resolving widely debated scientific questions.