Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment最新文献

{"title":"Reduced nitrogen input enhances phosphorus acquisition advantage in maize/soybean intercropping","authors":"Jihui Tian ,&nbsp;Song Peng ,&nbsp;Xiangjun Wang ,&nbsp;Yuxuan Liu ,&nbsp;Yixia Cai ,&nbsp;Kunzheng Cai ,&nbsp;Jianwu Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110158","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110158","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Maize/soybean intercropping holds great potential for enhancing phosphorus-use efficiency, yet the impact of nitrogen input on relative and absolute phosphorus acquisition advantages and underlying soil mechanisms remains unclear. This study aims to test the hypothesis that reduced nitrogen input enhances phosphorus acquisition advantage in maize/soybean intercropping by improving soil phosphorus availability and biological phosphorus turnover. An eight-year (2013–2021) field experiment included three cropping systems: maize monocropping, maize/soybean 2:3 intercropping, and maize/soybean 2:4 intercropping, with three nitrogen application rates (nil nitrogen, reduced nitrogen [300 kg ha⁻¹], and conventional nitrogen [360 kg ha⁻¹] applied solely to maize); soybean monocropping served as the control. Maize/soybean intercropping exhibited significant phosphorus acquisition advantages, with an average land equivalent ratio for phosphorus of 1.28 and a net effect of 6.29 kg P ha⁻¹. However, conventional nitrogen applications reduced land equivalent ratio by 11.4–30.1 % and net effect by 115–158 % compared to nil and reduced nitrogen applications, indicating excessive nitrogen diminishes intercropping benefits for phosphorus. Mechanistically, soybean intercropping under nil and reduced nitrogen applications increased maize phosphorus uptake by 12.4–21.6 %, soil resin phosphorus by 16.0–31.1 %, and citrate phosphorus by 21.5–76.6 %, attributed to significant increases in acid phosphatase activity (10.7–48 %) and microbial biomass phosphorus (20.3–73.0 %). Random forest modeling identified soil citrate phosphorus (<em>P</em> &lt; 0.01) and acid phosphatase activity (<em>P</em> &lt; 0.05) as the primary drivers of maize phosphorus uptake, with a positive association between these factors and maize phosphorus uptake. However, despite the enhanced phosphorus acquisition under low nitrogen, the yield advantage of intercropping was largely unaffected by nitrogen levels. In summary, reduced nitrogen input appears to enhance phosphorus acquisition advantage in maize/soybean intercropping by increasing soil phosphorus availability and biological turnover potential. While these findings point to a promising low-nitrogen strategy for improving phosphorus-use efficiency in intercropping systems, its broader applicability and scalability require further validation across diverse ecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"399 ","pages":"Article 110158"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145689648","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Why do farmland bird population trends diverge between countries? Studying the legacy of historical land use and agricultural intensification in Central Europe","authors":"Adriana Cíbik Hološková ,&nbsp;Anna Gamero ,&nbsp;Tibor Szép ,&nbsp;Norbert Teufelbauer ,&nbsp;Soňa Svetlíková ,&nbsp;Jozef Ridzoň ,&nbsp;Katharina Bergmüller ,&nbsp;Erwin Nemeth ,&nbsp;Jiří Reif","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110159","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110159","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Long-term population trends of farmland birds are informative for understanding impacts of agricultural practices on biodiversity. By comparing the trends between different countries, we can learn what aspects of agriculture are beneficial or detrimental for farmland biodiversity at large scales. For this purpose, this study investigates the relationships between agricultural intensification, landscape structure, and trends in farmland bird populations from 2005 to 2023 across three Central European countries that are geographically close yet have experienced distinctly different agricultural histories. Utilizing long-term population data in combination with agricultural metrics, such as crop yields, fertilizer use and the extent of high-input farming, we examine impacts of farming practices and historical land-use legacies. Our analyses show that population trends were significantly negatively associated with the share of high-input farms, with steepest declines in Austria and Slovakia. Annual population indices also declined with increasing high-input farming in Austria, while higher fertilizer use was linked to lower indices in Slovakia. Trends were more negative in areas with a higher share of permanent grasslands and meadows, indicating that habitat extent alone does not safeguard farmland birds under unfavourable management. Hungary, on the other hand, shows relative stability in its farmland bird populations over past two decades—a trend that may be attributed to smaller farm sizes, decreasing proportion of high-input farms and the preservation of steppe-like habitats through sustainable grazing practices. Granivorous species appear to be the most severely affected by population declines, likely as a result of food shortages driven by intensive land-use practices. These findings highlight the complex interplay between agricultural practices and biodiversity, emphasizing the importance of tailored conservation strategies to arrest further declines in farmland bird populations across Central Europe.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"399 ","pages":"Article 110159"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145689649","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Crop rotation impacts on SOC fraction contents and stability: Insights from a global meta-analysis","authors":"Samuel Adingo ,&nbsp;Rui Jiang ,&nbsp;Zichun Guo ,&nbsp;Fahui Jiang ,&nbsp;Lei Gao ,&nbsp;Jianli Liu ,&nbsp;Shuai Liu ,&nbsp;Xinhua Peng","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110128","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110128","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Crop rotation (CR) is widely recognized as a sustainable agricultural practice that enhances soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation and maintains soil health. However, the specific effects of CR on distinct SOC fractions and SOC stability in cropland soils remain largely unexplored. We synthesized 44 studies comprising 196 paired observations from Asia, Africa, and Europe to quantify CR effects on SOC fraction contents (particulate organic carbon, POC, and mineral-associated organic carbon, MAOC), as well as its stability across climate-soil-management contexts. Relative to continuous monocropping (MC), CR increased SOC, POC, and MAOC contents by 11.83 %, 23.56 %, and 8.57 %, respectively, and on average increased the SOC stability (indicated by POC/MAOC ratio, hereafter P/M) by 16.25 %, indicating a larger labile share at the global mean. However, subgroup analysis reveals conditions under which CR reduced the P/M ratio. Notably, CR increased SOC and its fractions but tended to reduce the P/M ratios at high temperatures and in humid regions. CR increased SOC and MAOC in acidic soils, while it enhanced POC in neutral soils relative to MC. Positive effects of CR on SOC, its fractions, and stability were observed in high initial SOC and loamy soils for POC and clayey soils for SOC, MAOC, and SOC stability. The opposite trend was observed in low initial SOC and sandy soils. The random forest results showed that changes in SOC fractions were predominantly regulated by climatic factors, while MAOC, POC, and the P/M ratio were more responsive to soil properties and agronomic practices, respectively. These findings argue for region-specific, diversified rotations paired with practices that channel inputs into MAOC to lower the P/M ratio. Incorporating the P/M ratio into monitoring, reporting, and verification complements total stock accounting by identifying systems that build durable carbon.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"399 ","pages":"Article 110128"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145689947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Linking bacterial community shifts to biochar-induced improvements in soil fertility and multifunctionality","authors":"Yefeng Ruan ,&nbsp;Zhennan Xiang ,&nbsp;Zongkun Yang ,&nbsp;Zhengye Yang ,&nbsp;Min Zhang ,&nbsp;Ming Hung Wong ,&nbsp;Shengdao Shan ,&nbsp;Wenbo Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110142","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110142","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Biochar is widely recognized as a strategic amendment for enhancing soil fertility and multifunctionality. However, the underlying roles of soil microbial communities and their functions in mediating soil fertility and multifunctionality under biochar amendment remain insufficiently understood. A two-year field experiment with six treatments was conducted: an unfertilized control, a chemical fertilizer treatment, and chemical fertilizer amended with perishable waste biochar at four distinct application rates (0.5 %, 1 %, 2 %, and 3 %). This experiment was designed to investigate the impacts of varying biochar application rates on soil enzyme activities, carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) functional genes, as well as bacterial community composition, and to evaluate their contributions to soil fertility and multifunctionality. Our results show that compared with non-biochar treatment, biochar significantly improved the soil integrated fertility index (IFI) and multifunctionality (0.08–0.16 and 0.10–0.23, respectively). High-throughput quantitative PCR analysis revealed that oxidative potential and normalized C/N/P enzyme activities increased with higher biochar input and were positively correlated with soil multifunctionality. Compared to chemical fertilizer alone, biochar application increased the abundance of genes related to C, N, P, and sulphur (S) cycling, with C- and S-related genes identified by the random forest model as key contributors to the multifunctionality. Concurrently, biochar shifted bacterial communities toward copiotrophic dominance, as evidenced by an elevated copiotroph (2 %-10 %). Specific bacterial taxa, such as Bacteroidetes and Acidobacteria, were significantly associated with soil multifunctionality (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.01), but not with the IFI. The findings highlight the substantial potential of biochar to promote microbially driven processes, thereby enhancing soil fertility and multifunctionality.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"399 ","pages":"Article 110142"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145689946","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Timing of grass renewal regulates nitrous oxide emissions from a drained boreal peatland","authors":"Sanni Semberg,&nbsp;Hem Raj Bhattarai,&nbsp;Petra Manninen,&nbsp;Yuan Li,&nbsp;Narasinha Shurpali,&nbsp;Perttu Virkajärvi","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110155","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110155","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Drained peatlands in northern latitudes have been used for forage production for decades. They are recognized sources of nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions. In boreal regions, grassland renewal is mandatory to maintain high forage productivity and quality, yet renewal practices involving ploughing can significantly increase N₂O emissions. Here, we assessed the effect of plough timing (autumn ploughing with spring reseeding (AP) vs summer ploughing with immediate reseeding (SP)) on N₂O emissions from a drained peatland in Eastern Finland. We conducted a three-year field experiment measuring N₂O fluxes using manual chambers during snow-free seasons and snow gradient method during the snow-covered periods. Results showed that AP (88 kg N₂O-N ha⁻¹) emitted 2.6 times more N₂O than SP (34.5 kg N₂O-N ha⁻¹) over the three years and exhibited greater interannual variability in its N₂O emissions. Ploughing in the autumn led to sustained higher N₂O emissions for longer periods and affected the following non-growing season and annual emissions considerably. Similarly, three-year yield-scaled N₂O emissions were 2.2 times more in AP (3.7 kg N Mg⁻¹) than in SP (1.7 kg N Mg⁻¹). We found that grassland renewal increased the yield compared to the yields prior to renewal. These findings suggest that summer ploughing with prompt reseeding is a more sustainable practice for grassland renewal on drained peatlands, offering reduced N₂O emissions without compromising productivity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"399 ","pages":"Article 110155"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145692513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions of a managed organic soil by paddy rice cultivation in the cool temperate zone","authors":"Alina Widmer ,&nbsp;Lisa Tamagni ,&nbsp;Chloé Wüst-Galley ,&nbsp;Sonja Paul ,&nbsp;Markus Jocher ,&nbsp;Valerio Volpe ,&nbsp;Sebastian Doetterl ,&nbsp;Thomas Keller ,&nbsp;Jens Leifeld","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110146","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110146","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Large areas of temperate peatlands are drained for agriculture and are strong sources of greenhouse gases (GHG). Paddy rice cultivation as a new cropping system in the cool temperate climate could offer an opportunity for continuing food production on these organic soils, possibly reducing carbon dioxide (CO₂) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions by rewetting. However, methane (CH₄) from paddy rice cultivation might impair the potential climate benefits. Here, the GHG fluxes of CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O of paddy rice grown on organic soil with and without amended mineral cover, as well as in ley cultivated on drained organic soil as a reference, were quantified in an outdoor mesocosm experiment in Switzerland (cool temperate climate). Measurements were conducted with manual chambers for one year. Compared to ley under drained management, paddy rice cultivation reduced the net GHG balance by 36.1 %, from 32.7 (7.0) to 20.9 (2.7) t CO₂ eq ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. The GHG balance was dominated by CO₂ whereas CH₄ accounted for 8 % (54.3 (26.2) kg CH₄ ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹). Most CO₂ emissions occurred during the drained fallow period (mid-September–April). N₂O emissions (0.9 (0.4) kg N₂O-N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹) were reduced by 83.9 % with paddy rice. Adding an amended mineral cover to organic soil slightly reduced the net GHG balance further, but not significantly. Multi-year studies on field-scale are required to generalize this study’s findings derived from a one-year mesocosm experiment. The results point towards paddy rice cultivation being a promising alternative to drained agriculture on temperate organic soils while maintaining food production and mitigating GHG emissions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"399 ","pages":"Article 110146"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145692426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The differences in effects of short-term and long-term N fertilization on CH4 emissions from rice paddies","authors":"Nana Chen ,&nbsp;Xiangcheng Zhu ,&nbsp;Kailou Liu ,&nbsp;Jin Chen ,&nbsp;Shan Huang ,&nbsp;Yanfeng Ding ,&nbsp;Haoyu Qian ,&nbsp;Xin Zhang ,&nbsp;Yu Jiang","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110148","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110148","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rice paddies are one of the main anthropogenic sources of methane (CH₄), and their emissions are strongly influenced by nitrogen (N) fertilization. However, the temporal variation in the effects of N fertilization on CH₄ emissions remains poorly understood. Leveraging a unique 43-year field experiment, this study provides the first direct investigation of the different effects of short- versus long-term N fertilization on CH₄ emissions. We found that N fertilization stimulated CH₄ emissions more strongly in long-term than in short-term plots. Short-term fertilization increased CH₄ emissions by 49–60 %, whereas long-term N fertilization increased emissions by 324–339 %. Compared with short-term N fertilization, long-term N fertilization resulted in higher soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and NH₄⁺-N concentrations and increased methanogenic abundance by 56 %. Moreover, it shifted methanogenic and methanotrophic communities toward more efficient CH₄ production (an increase in the relative abundance of <em>Methanoregula</em>) and less efficient CH₄ oxidation (a decrease in the relative abundance of <em>Methylocystis</em>). These findings indicated that long-term N fertilization exacerbated CH₄ emissions compared to short-term primarily due to legacy effects on substrate availability and microbial community structure. Our findings suggest that current estimates of the impact of N fertilization on CH₄ emissions may be underestimated, underscoring the urgent need for targeted mitigation strategies in intensively managed rice systems to effectively reduce CH₄ emissions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"399 ","pages":"Article 110148"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145692514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Grazing-induced enhancement of rhizosphere effect on soil multifunctionality is linked to altered microbial life-history strategies in semiarid grasslands","authors":"Nuo Xu ,&nbsp;Le Li ,&nbsp;Yuhong Luo ,&nbsp;Yunxiang Jin ,&nbsp;Keyu Bai ,&nbsp;Qiuli Bao ,&nbsp;Jiahui Liu ,&nbsp;Yufan Bao ,&nbsp;Yuchun Yan","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110147","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110147","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rhizosphere represents the most active zone in soil, characterized by intense interactions between plant roots and microorganisms. These interactions result in significant rhizosphere effects (REs) that regulate the microenvironment, facilitating environmental stress adaptation of plants. However, the response of REs to grazing remains unclear. This study utilized four paired grazed and ungrazed sites in semiarid steppes to investigate alterations of REs on microbial communities and soil multifunctionality under both grazed and ungrazed conditions. Our results indicated that grazing enhanced rhizosphere-driven nutrient cycling despite lowering overall soil multifunctionality. Furthermore, this enhancement was closely linked to changes in microbial community composition. These findings underscore the critical role of shifts in microbial life-history strategies in mediating RE on soil multifunctionality and contribute to a better understanding of plant adaptation strategies under grazing pressure.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"399 ","pages":"Article 110147"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145692427","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Simultaneous diversification of cover and cash crops: Short-term agronomic and soil health outcomes","authors":"Rachel Wooliver ,&nbsp;Lori A. Duncan ,&nbsp;Jake McNeal ,&nbsp;Tyson B. Raper ,&nbsp;Andrew Denton ,&nbsp;Sindhu Jagadamma","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110138","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110138","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Positive relationships between plant diversity and ecosystem functioning are frequent in natural systems, however research on year-round plant diversification to improve agroecosystem outcomes is limited. Challenges such as lag times for soil health benefits during the early transition years of cover cropping may be compensated by increases in crop yield from cash crop rotations. To better understand management strategies that could promote agroecosystem productivity and sustainability, we explored responses of agronomic and soil multifunctionality to simultaneous winter cover crop mixes and cash crop rotation using a three-year field experiment in western Tennessee, USA. Cover crop treatments included a no cover crop control (winter fallow), single-species winter wheat (<em>Triticum aestivum</em> L.), single-species crimson clover (<em>Trifolium incarnatum</em> L.), two-species wheat-clover mix, and five-species mix of cereal rye (<em>Secale cereale</em> L.), oat (<em>Avena sativa</em> L.), clover, hairy vetch (<em>Vicia villosa</em> Roth), and radish (<em>Raphanus sativus</em> L.). Cropping systems included continuous corn (<em>Zea mays</em> L.), continuous soybean (<em>Glycine max</em> L.), corn-soybean rotation, and corn-cotton (<em>Gossypium hirsutum</em> L.)-soybean rotation. Total agronomic and soil health multifunctionality were weakly correlated across treatment combinations. The single-species clover and both mixes led to the highest agronomic multifunctionality in all cropping systems. Single-species wheat and wheat-clover mix provided the greatest cover crop biomass inputs, but both cover crops decreased overall cash crop yields (corn, cotton, and soybean scaled within crop and year) relative to the five-species mix. This result for yield was driven by year-one reductions in corn yield by averages of 2.15 and 1.74 Mg ha⁻¹ in single-species wheat and wheat-clover mix cover cropped plots (respectively) compared to all other cover crop treatments. Cash crop rotation did not influence agronomic multifunctionality, although in year three, rotation with soybean increased corn yield by 1.49 Mg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ relative to monocropped corn, and rotation with corn and cotton increased soybean yield by 0.34 Mg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ relative to monocropped soybean. Wheat-clover mix as a cover crop increased mineral-associated organic C relative to winter fallow in the continuous soybean system, however there were no strong overall influences of cover crop or crop rotation on soil multifunctionality. Overall, our results suggest that winter cover crops can increase agronomic benefits of cash cropping systems in the southeastern United States within three years of adoption, but soil health benefits may be more difficult to detect in this short timeframe.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"399 ","pages":"Article 110138"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145657697","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Loss of soil ecosystem multifunctionality during alpine grassland restoration with reseeding and organic fertilization","authors":"Zuonan Cao ,&nbsp;Guozheng Hu ,&nbsp;Xuyang Han ,&nbsp;Guoxu Ji ,&nbsp;Yandan Ma ,&nbsp;Zheng Li ,&nbsp;Hasbagan Ganjurjav ,&nbsp;Jun Yan ,&nbsp;Youxia Wang ,&nbsp;Qingzhu Gao","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110140","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.110140","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The degradation of alpine grasslands threatens their capacity to provide essential ecosystem services, prompting extensive restoration efforts such as reseeding and fertilization. However, the long-term effects of these approaches on soil ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) remain uncertain. Here, we conducted a five-year field experiment in a degraded alpine grassland on the central Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in Nagqu to assess the effect of organic fertilization, native grasses (<em>Poa annua</em>, <em>Elymus nutans</em>, and <em>Puccinellia distans</em>) reseeding, oat (<em>Avena sativa L</em>.) reseeding and their combinations. The most significant finding was that organic fertilization both alone and when combined with grass reseeding, significantly enhanced soil EMF, while all other treatments decreased it due to nutrient limitation. While most treatments increased aboveground productivity, only the combination of grass reseeding and fertilization simultaneously improved plant diversity. When combined with fertilization, grass reseeding unexpectedly resulted in higher soil nutrient contents compared to oat reseeding. Additionally, only grass reseeding combined with fertilization maintained stable soil threshold elemental ratios of C:N, suggesting a balanced nutrient cycle. Random forest analysis further confirmed that soil properties and microbial functions explained 89 % of the variation in soil EMF. We concluded that restoration strategies focused solely on aboveground productivity can result in soil EMF loss by interfering with microbial-driven nutrient cycling. Therefore, the combination of native grass reseeding with organic fertilization should be considered the optimal restoration approach for degraded alpine grasslands.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"399 ","pages":"Article 110140"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145657703","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}