Designing multispecies grassland leys for optimised soil carbon sequestration and efficient nutrient cycles in crop rotations (GrassRotate)

Introduktion

Multi-species grassland leys can provide significant benefits for sustainable crop production, including higher soil organic carbon stocks, yields and yield stability, as well as a strong weed reduction potential. In crop rotations, they additionally provide legacy effects for follow-on crops (fertilizer replacement value, improved soil health) and consequent reductions in GHG emissions. These benefits have direct implications for existing organic agricultural production, which becomes less dependent on slurry and reduces weed pressure in arable crops, as well as trigger the conversion of conventional agriculture to organic agriculture. GrassRotate will use an existing long term organic crop-rotation experiment to determine optimal management techniques to enhance yields, fertilizer replacement potential and forage quality of a multispecies grassland compared to a traditional grass-clover ley. Furthermore, it will for the first time closely examine the legacy effects in crop rotations and determine changes in soil organic carbon stocks in both shallow and deep soil layers to examine the impact of ley duration and management on the climate change mitigation potential. Finally, the gained insight will be upscaled to the farm level and optimised management schemes and their economic and environmental potential will be assessed.

Forventede resultater

De forventede resultater fra projektet bliver offentliggjort på denne internetside: 4. kvartal 2023. Projektets resultater stilles gratis til rådighed.

Projektresultater

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