Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Denitrification, a major source of gaseous nitrogen emissions from agricultural soils, is influenced by management. Practices promoting belowground diversity are suggested to support sustainable agriculture, but how they modulate nitrogen losses via denitrification remains inconclusive. Here we sampled 106 cereal fields spanning a 3000 km North-South gradient across Europe and compiled 56 associated climatic, soil, microbial and management variables. We show that increased denitrification potential was associated with higher proportion of time with crop cover over the last ten years and was best predicted by microbial biomass and microbial functional guilds involved in nitrogen cycling, in particular denitrification. We also demonstrate that several diversification practices affect the variation in denitrification potential predictors, suggesting a trade-off between agricultural diversification and nitrogen losses via denitrification. However, increased crop diversity in rotations improved yield-scaled denitrification, highlighting the potential of this practice to minimize nitrogen losses while contributing to sustainable food production.
Institutions: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Agroscope, North Dakota State University, University of Zurich, Wageningen University & Research, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto de Ciencias Agrarias, ETH Zurich, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Université de Bourgogne, Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement, Agroécologie, Institut Agro Dijon, Berlin Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research, Freie Universität Berlin
Language: English
Subfield: Soil Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,490
Funders: National Science Foundation, Biodiversa+, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Vetenskapsrådet, Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet
Awards: Agro-ecosystem diversification: digging deeper, Productive agriculture for reaching the sustainable development goals - PEGASUS, Managing soil biodiversity and ecosystem services in agroecosystems across Europe under climate change, G4347317430, Diversifizierung von Agrarökosystemen, G5851681751, G712881263, G7317244591
OpenAlex ID: W7116904625