IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v231y2020ics0378377419318220.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cover crops reduce drainage but not always soil water content due to interactions between rainfall distribution and management

Author

Listed:
  • Meyer, Nicolas
  • Bergez, Jacques-Eric
  • Constantin, Julie
  • Belleville, Paul
  • Justes, Eric

Abstract

Cover crops are a potential component of agroecological cropping systems, since they may render crop rotations more sustainable. They simultaneously provide multiple ecosystem services, such as decreasing nitrate leaching, decreasing erosion, and increasing soil organic matter. However, cover crops increase evapotranspiration and reduce drainage, which results in a potential disservice for groundwater recharge. Little attention has focused on management of cover crop residues after destruction or their influence on water flux dynamics, particularly in dry and temperate climates. The objective of our study was to analyze and quantify the impact of cover crop management on soil water content and water flux dynamics to understand the main mechanisms of system functioning. We combined a two-year field experiment with crop-model simulations. We performed the field experiment in southwestern France that compared three cover crop treatments, with bare soil as the control. The treatments included (1) living cover crops lasting ca. 9 months from August-April, (2) crushing cover crops in November and leaving them as mulch on the soil, and (3) plowing up cover crops in November to promote residue decomposition and the green manure effect. The STICS soil-crop model was used to predict water fluxes that were not measured and to perform a 20-year independent simulation study based on recent climate series for the experimental site. Our main results indicated that cover crops (1) always reduce water drainage by 20-60 mm compared to that under bare soil; and (2) could significantly reduce soil water content (0-120 cm deep) for the next cash crop by a mean of 20-50 mm, and up to 80 mm in dry spring conditions, but early destruction could decrease this negative impact. The simulations clearly showed that the interaction between climate variability, i.e., rainfall distribution during the fallow period, and cover crop management should be considered to explain the impact of inter-annual variability on the water balance. Thus, destroying cover crops mechanically in late autumn and retaining the residues as mulch could be a good compromise between the multiple services the cover crop provides during the fallow period and avoiding the negative impact on soil water availability for the next cash crop.

Suggested Citation

  • Meyer, Nicolas & Bergez, Jacques-Eric & Constantin, Julie & Belleville, Paul & Justes, Eric, 2020. "Cover crops reduce drainage but not always soil water content due to interactions between rainfall distribution and management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:231:y:2020:i:c:s0378377419318220
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2019.105998
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377419318220
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2019.105998?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kang, Shaozhong & Gu, Binjie & Du, Taisheng & Zhang, Jianhua, 2003. "Crop coefficient and ratio of transpiration to evapotranspiration of winter wheat and maize in a semi-humid region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 239-254, April.
    2. Schipanski, Meagan E. & Barbercheck, Mary & Douglas, Margaret R. & Finney, Denise M. & Haider, Kristin & Kaye, Jason P. & Kemanian, Armen R. & Mortensen, David A. & Ryan, Matthew R. & Tooker, John & W, 2014. "A framework for evaluating ecosystem services provided by cover crops in agroecosystems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 12-22.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pirjo Peltonen-Sainio & Lauri Jauhiainen & Tuomas J. Mattila & Juuso Joona & Tony Hydén & Hannu Känkänen, 2022. "Pioneering Farmers Value Agronomic Performance of Cover Crops and Their Impacts on Soil and Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-18, July.
    2. Chelil, Samy & Henine, Hocine & Chaumont, Cedric & Tournebize, Julien, 2022. "NIT-DRAIN model to simulate nitrate concentrations and leaching in a tile-drained agricultural field," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 271(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Feng, Yu & Gong, Daozhi & Mei, Xurong & Hao, Weiping & Tang, Dahua & Cui, Ningbo, 2017. "Energy balance and partitioning in partial plastic mulched and non-mulched maize fields on the Loess Plateau of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 193-206.
    2. Navarro-Miró, D. & Iocola, I. & Persiani, A. & Blanco-Moreno, J.M. & Kristensen, H. Lakkenborg & Hefner, M. & Tamm, K. & Bender, I. & Védie, H. & Willekens, K. & Diacono, M. & Montemurro, F. & Sans, F, 2019. "Energy flows in European organic vegetable systems: Effects of the introduction and management of agroecological service crops," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    3. Wang, Weishu & Rong, Yao & Dai, Xiaoqin & Zhang, Chenglong & Wang, Chaozi & Huo, Zailin, 2024. "Variation and attribution of energy distribution for salinized sunflower farmland in arid area," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 297(C).
    4. Zhao, Nana & Liu, Yu & Cai, Jiabing & Paredes, Paula & Rosa, Ricardo D. & Pereira, Luis S., 2013. "Dual crop coefficient modelling applied to the winter wheat–summer maize crop sequence in North China Plain: Basal crop coefficients and soil evaporation component," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 93-105.
    5. Gong, Daozhi & Mei, Xurong & Hao, Weiping & Wang, Hanbo & Caylor, Kelly K., 2017. "Comparison of ET partitioning and crop coefficients between partial plastic mulched and non-mulched maize fields," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 23-34.
    6. Tong, Ling & Kang, Shaozhong & Zhang, Lu, 2007. "Temporal and spatial variations of evapotranspiration for spring wheat in the Shiyang river basin in northwest China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 241-250, February.
    7. Riccardo Lo Bianco & Mark Rieger, 2017. "Transpiration/Evaporation Ratio in Prunus Fremontii and Marianna 2624 over a 4-Day Period of Drought," International Journal of Environmental Sciences & Natural Resources, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 7(4), pages 96-99, December.
    8. Zheng, Jing & Fan, Junliang & Zhang, Fucang & Zhuang, Qianlai, 2021. "Evapotranspiration partitioning and water productivity of rainfed maize under contrasting mulching conditions in Northwest China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    9. Fan, Yubing & Wang, Chenggang & Nan, Zhibiao, 2014. "Comparative evaluation of crop water use efficiency, economic analysis and net household profit simulation in arid Northwest China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 335-345.
    10. Wang, Yueyue & Horton, Robert & Xue, Xuzhang & Ren, Tusheng, 2021. "Partitioning evapotranspiration by measuring soil water evaporation with heat-pulse sensors and plant transpiration with sap flow gauges," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
    11. Lian, Yanhao & Ali, Shahzad & Zhang, Xudong & Wang, Tianlu & Liu, Qi & Jia, Qianmin & Jia, Zhikuan & Han, Qingfang, 2016. "Nutrient and tillage strategies to increase grain yield and water use efficiency in semi-arid areas," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 137-147.
    12. Alberto, Ma. Carmelita R. & Quilty, James R. & Buresh, Roland J. & Wassmann, Reiner & Haidar, Sam & Correa, Teodoro Q. & Sandro, Joseph M., 2014. "Actual evapotranspiration and dual crop coefficients for dry-seeded rice and hybrid maize grown with overhead sprinkler irrigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 1-12.
    13. Garba, Ismail I. & Bell, Lindsay W. & Chauhan, Bhagirath S. & Williams, Alwyn, 2024. "Optimizing ecosystem function multifunctionality with cover crops for improved agronomic and environmental outcomes in dryland cropping systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    14. Qin, Shujing & Li, Sien & Kang, Shaozhong & Du, Taisheng & Tong, Ling & Ding, Risheng & Wang, Yahui & Guo, Hui, 2019. "Transpiration of female and male parents of seed maize in northwest China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 397-409.
    15. Yang, Xiaolin & Gao, Wangsheng & Shi, Quanhong & Chen, Fu & Chu, Qingquan, 2013. "Impact of climate change on the water requirement of summer maize in the Huang-Huai-Hai farming region," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 20-27.
    16. Oliveira, Eduardo & Leuthard, Jasmin & Tobias, Silvia, 2019. "Spatial planning instruments for cropland protection in Western European countries," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    17. Karandish, Fatemeh & Šimůnek, Jiří, 2016. "A field-modeling study for assessing temporal variations of soil-water-crop interactions under water-saving irrigation strategies," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 291-303.
    18. Liu, Yi & Li, Shiqing & Chen, Fang & Yang, Shenjiao & Chen, Xinping, 2010. "Soil water dynamics and water use efficiency in spring maize (Zea mays L.) fields subjected to different water management practices on the Loess Plateau, China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(5), pages 769-775, May.
    19. Zhang, Fan & Zhang, Chenglong & Yan, Zehao & Guo, Shanshan & Wang, Youzhi & Guo, Ping, 2018. "An interval nonlinear multiobjective programming model with fuzzy-interval credibility constraint for crop monthly water allocation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 123-133.
    20. Sabzchi-Dehkharghani, Hamed & Nazemi, Amir Hossein & Sadraddini, Ali Ashraf & Majnooni-Heris, Abolfazl & Biswas, Asim, 2021. "Recognition of different yield potentials among rain-fed wheat fields before harvest using remote sensing," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:231:y:2020:i:c:s0378377419318220. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.