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The role of autumn crop-coverage in nitrate leaching: A Daisy model scenario analysis comparing catch-crops and winter cereals across multiple sites and climatic conditions in Denmark

Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Understanding the intra-annual dynamics of nitrogen (N) uptake and release across entire crop rotations is essential for minimizing N losses, as these dynamics carry legacy effects spanning agro-hydrological years. While cover crops (CCs) are widely adopted to mitigate N-leaching, there is uncertainty of whether their effectiveness varies across soil types, climates, and field prehistory. This study utilized four field experimental sites and constructed eight 24-year crop rotation scenarios to quantify how differing levels of CC and winter cereal coverage reduced annual N-leaching losses and affected other key N-dynamics. Our findings confirmed that, under certain management strategies, soil types, and climatic conditions, winter wheat autumn cover could be equally effective as CCs in reducing annual N-leaching. Although increasing CC-cover generally led to a near-linear reduction in N-leaching, the magnitude of this reduction varied depending on soil, CC species, and annual weather variability. Importantly, differences between rotations could be largely explained by accounting for the intra-annual dynamics of N cycling. These results emphasize that while CCs can be highly effective at reducing N-leaching, other autumn covers could potentially be equally effective with consideration of regional spatiotemporal- and climatic conditions. Finally, the high annual and site-specific variability in N-leaching across rotations underscores the need to adapt robust management strategies that will actualize reductions in N-leaching losses with increasingly unpredictable weather conditions.
DOI: 10.1016/j.geodrs.2025.e01033
Language: English
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,310
OpenAlex ID: W4416757416
FWCI:
Cites: 54
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