Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment最新文献

{"title":"Soil CO2 emissions during the winter–summer crop rotation fallow period: Influence of tillage, nitrogen fertilization, and weed growth in a long-term field trial","authors":"Matteo Francioni ,&nbsp;Paride D’Ottavio ,&nbsp;Marco Bianchini ,&nbsp;Paola Antonia Deligios ,&nbsp;Luigi Ledda ,&nbsp;Chiara Rivosecchi ,&nbsp;Federico Mammarella ,&nbsp;Alessio Giampieri ,&nbsp;Gianluca Brunetti ,&nbsp;Stefano Zenobi ,&nbsp;Marco Fiorentini ,&nbsp;Biagio Di Tella ,&nbsp;Roberto Orsini","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109805","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109805","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soil respiration is a key component of the carbon cycle, yet it remains understudied during fallow periods, particularly in Mediterranean cropping systems where fallows can exceed nine months. As the carbon credit market emerges, accurately quantifying CO₂ emissions year-round has become increasingly important. This study assessed soil respiration and its abiotic and biotic drivers, such as soil temperature and water content, weed biomass and composition, under two different tillage management, long-term conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT), combined with two nitrogen levels (0 and 180 kg N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹). Monitoring was conducted during two fallow periods (2022–2023 and 2023–2024) between durum wheat harvest and maize sowing. Soil temperature and water content followed typical Mediterranean trends, with summer heat peaks and higher winter moisture; NT plots had significantly higher average temperatures and winter soil moisture than CT, regardless of fertilization. Soil CO₂ emissions were low and similar across treatments in winter but diverged in warmer seasons. In 2022–23, NT showed significantly higher emissions than CT (up to +65 %), while in 2023–24, only NT0 exceeded CT180 (+48 %). Emissions were positively correlated, although weakly, with temperature and negatively with moisture, especially under NT. Soil cover, dominated by Poaceae, fluctuated seasonally and was consistently greater in NT, with notable differences in species composition. These results emphasize the relevance of fallow-period emissions in carbon budgeting and the potential role of spontaneous vegetation in carbon dynamics. Incorporating such insights into carbon farming frameworks will be essential for improving the accuracy and integrity of climate-related agricultural policies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"393 ","pages":"Article 109805"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144231328","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":"Ecological processes affecting weed communities in Nova Scotian wild blueberry fields","authors":"A. McKenzie-Gopsill ,&nbsp;S.N. White ,&nbsp;H. Lyu ,&nbsp;S. Hann","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109802","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109802","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ecological gradients and processes are known to play a key role in determining weed community composition in agroecosystems. The present study investigated whether climatic, topographical, and soil edaphic factors were associated with weed species occurrences and abundances in wild blueberry fields. A plant survey of 165 wild blueberry fields in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia was conducted and combined with climatic, topographical, and soil edaphic data collected from Federal databases. Linear mixed models and multivariate analyses were used to disentangle the relationship between weed species occurrences, species-species interactions, and environmental covariates in wild blueberry fields. The surrounding weed species diversity in fields had the strongest association with wild blueberry stem density with increasing species richness driving a decrease in stem density regardless of weed density. Weed diversity was affected by accumulated growing degree days, topographical position index, and topographical wetness index. The occurrence and abundance of many common weed species was positively associated with wild blueberry and accumulated growing degree days. The relative importance of niche-based assembly rules for overall weed species composition in wild blueberry fields, however, was minimal. Yet several species showed high correlation with environmental cofactors. These results stress the importance of local stochasticity and species-species interactions in determining weed communities in wild blueberry fields and the challenge with predicting weed communities in perennial agroecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"393 ","pages":"Article 109802"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144242059","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":"Effects of straw returning depth on soil organic carbon sequestration and crop yield in China: A meta-analysis","authors":"Miaomiao Zhang ,&nbsp;Ning Yang ,&nbsp;Xiaoqing Han ,&nbsp;Rattan Lal ,&nbsp;Tiantian Huang ,&nbsp;Pengfei Dang ,&nbsp;Jiquan Xue ,&nbsp;Xiaoliang Qin ,&nbsp;Kadambot H.M. Siddique","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109799","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109799","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Carbon sequestration is a crucial strategy for mitigating carbon dioxide emissions and addressing global climate change, with straw returning playing a key role in enhancing soil organic carbon (SOC) storage. However, most studies have focused on surface-level straw returning and its impact on topsoil SOC, with limited attention to how different straw returning depths (RD) on SOC stocks (SOCS) in topsoil (0−30 cm) and subsoil (30−60 cm). This study conducted a meta-analysis of 2290 observations from China to evaluate the effects of varying straw returning depths [0 cm (RD₀), 0−20 cm (RD₀₋₂₀), 20−30 cm (RD₂₀₋₃₀), and 30−60 cm (RD₃₀₋₆₀)] on SOCS in two soil layers and their relationship with crop yield. All straw returning depths significantly improved topsoil and subsoil SOCS and enhanced soil physicochemical properties. RD₂₀₋₃₀ showed the strongest effect on topsoil SOCS (14.3 %), whereas RD₃₀₋₆₀ had the weakest (5.6 %). Conversely, RD₃₀₋₆₀ had the strongest effect on subsoil SOCS (30.3 %), followed by RD₂₀₋₃₀ (15.8 %). Crop yield increased under all straw returning depths, with the greatest gains under RD₀₋₂₀ (11.2 %) and RD₂₀₋₃₀ (10.0 %). However, the effectiveness of each depth varied with environmental and management conditions. For example, RD₀ increased SOCS the most under straw inputs below 8000 kg·ha^–1 and loam soils, while RD_0–20 was most effective in single cropping systems, upland regions, clay loam soils, low temperature and precipitation regions, and maize straw returning. RD_20–30 proved beneficial in regions with double cropping systems, paddy and paddy-upland soils, high temperatures, rainy regions, and wheat or rice straw returning. These findings offer evidence-based insights to support sustainable straw returning strategies in China’s agricultural systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"393 ","pages":"Article 109799"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144231326","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":"Mechanisms of soil organic matter persistence vary across time and soil depth in long-term cropping systems of the North Central US","authors":"Tanner C. Judd ,&nbsp;Matthew D. Ruark ,&nbsp;Yichao Rui ,&nbsp;Gregg R. Sanford ,&nbsp;Zachary B. Freedman","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109769","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109769","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soil organic matter (SOM) declines under agricultural production have been well documented, despite efforts to maintain or enhance SOM through practices like rotational diversity and increased carbon (C) input quantity and quality. However, a critical knowledge gap remains in understanding how system management alters the microbial processes that drive C input turnover and stabilization across time and soil depths. This study addresses this gap by leveraging a long-term cropping systems trial to investigate microbial mechanisms of SOM turnover and stabilization across a representative range of cropping systems in the North Central US. We assessed microbial and chemical soil characteristics at two key sampling times throughout the growing season and linked these measurements to indicators of SOM persistence. Particulate organic matter (POM) C:N exhibited significant (P &lt; 0.001) variation across cropping systems, depth, and time reflecting a gradient of system C input quality. POM-C was greatest in pasture systems (P &lt; 0.001) at both time points, suggesting stability of the relationship between POM inputs and decomposition across the growing season. Additionally, microbial growth and respiration were highest in pasture (P &gt; 0.001), which was consistent across time, indicating an active microbial community that facilitates SOM turnover and stabilization. Our findings provide novel insights on the role of rotational and plant input diversity for enhancing microbial turnover and slowing SOM decline through POM substrate quality, particularly in pasture systems, across time and soil depths. This research will serve to inform future cropping system-level soil management strategies aimed at improving SOM persistence.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"393 ","pages":"Article 109769"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144223045","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":"Feed grain polycultures mitigate weather risk, support arthropods, and suppress weeds in the Western Corn Belt","authors":"Dhurba Neupane ,&nbsp;Shannon L. Osborne ,&nbsp;Karl A. Roeder ,&nbsp;Avery E. Knoll ,&nbsp;Patrick M. Ewing","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109773","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109773","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ensuring sustainable food production while preserving biodiversity and ecosystem services under extreme weather is a challenge. We evaluated whether intercropping could enhance the yield, feed quality, and stability of crop production while also provisioning habitat for beneficial arthropods which could improve ecosystem services like pest predation. The study was conducted across two weather contexts at Brookings, SD, in 2023, with Planting A being cooler at germination, warmer at flowering, and generally drier than Planting B. Treatments included oat and pea monocultures, an oat-pea biculture, and in Planting A, an oat-pea-flax triculture. Overall grain yields were 2247 ± 151 kg ha⁻¹, 2498 ± 109 kg ha⁻¹, and 1423 ± 158 kg ha⁻¹ for oat-pea, oat, and pea, respectively. Yields of monocultures varied between the two weather contexts, with 30.4 % and 113 % higher yields of oats and peas in Planting B versus Planting A. However, the biculture yields were not different across weather conditions <em>(p</em> = 0.3)<em>.</em> The bi- and tri-cultures were at least as land-use efficient as monocultures while providing stable productivity and feed quality even under heat-stressed conditions. The oat-pea mix also had higher crude protein, similar acid detergent fiber and total digestible nutrient, and lower neutral detergent fiber content versus the oat grain, while pea had the highest crude protein and lowest fiber content. Both polycultures improved the habitat for predatory arthropods and effectively suppressed weeds. Our findings suggest that intercropping could improve the productivity, stability, and long-term sustainability of feed grain production.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"393 ","pages":"Article 109773"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144223044","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":"Straw incorporation mitigates methane emissions by facilitating the conversion of particulate organic carbon to mineral-associated organic carbon","authors":"Jiayu Qin ,&nbsp;Xinlu Long ,&nbsp;Yuxi Zhou ,&nbsp;Ligeng Jiang ,&nbsp;Pengli Yuan","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109780","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109780","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Incorporating straw return into tillage systems is a potential strategy for sustaining rice production, while achieving multiple environmental benefits. The effect of different tillage management on methane emissions has been well documented; however, the combined effects with straw return management require further exploration. To investigate this, an experiment was initiated in 2008 using five management practices: conventional tillage, no tillage, conventional tillage with straw mulching, conventional tillage with straw incorporation, and no tillage with straw mulching. Changes in soil carbon pool properties, hydrolytic and oxidative enzyme activities, phospholipid fatty acids, and the abundance of methanogenic and methanotrophic genes were measured during the early and late rice-growing seasons in 2022 and 2023. The results indicated the following: (1) Straw return significantly increased cumulative methane emissions by 75.5 % compared with straw removal. However, conventional tillage with straw incorporation reduced cumulative methane emissions by 37.2 % and 20.3 % compared to conventional tillage with straw mulching and no tillage with straw mulching, respectively. (2) Conventional tillage with straw incorporation enhanced β-acetylglucosaminidase and cellobiohydrolase activities and increased mineral-associated organic carbon content compared to conventional tillage with straw mulching and no tillage with straw mulching. (3) Under conventional tillage with straw incorporation, the content of phospholipid fatty acids in bacteria, fungi, and actinomycetes increased by 7.6 %–19.3 %, 7.2 %–18.3 %, and 6.0 %–19.8 % compared with conventional tillage, no tillage, and conventional tillage with straw mulching, respectively. (4) Conventional tillage with straw incorporation reduced methanogens/methanotrophs by 14.1 % and 4.0 % compared with conventional tillage with straw mulching and no tillage with straw mulching, respectively. Structural equation modeling revealed that tillage and straw management promoted the conversion of particulate organic carbon to mineral-associated organic carbon by increasing the soil microbial populations and β-acetylglucosaminidase and cellobiohydrolase activities, which regulated methane production by methane-related functional communities. Thus, regulating the conversion of activated carbon to inert carbon through a rational combination of tillage and straw return methods can effectively reduce methane emissions from double rice paddies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"393 ","pages":"Article 109780"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144223043","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":"Sustainable grassland management through an intercropping system based on cutting optimization","authors":"Longshuai Ma ,&nbsp;Guanrong Dai ,&nbsp;Fangru Wan ,&nbsp;Xiaozheng Wang ,&nbsp;Yinjuan Li ,&nbsp;Baoqing Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109775","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109775","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In arid and semi-arid regions, the restoration of degraded grasslands necessitates strategies that balance agricultural production with ecological sustainability. Large-scale alfalfa cultivation has been implemented in the Loess Plateau of China to establish cultivated grassland aimed at vegetation recovery and soil erosion control. However, this approach presents a critical dilemma: although alfalfa effectively stabilizes soil and supports local livelihoods, its high water demand exacerbates the already severe water scarcity that exists in such dryland ecosystems. To address this issue, a two-year field experiment was conducted in Qingyang, Gansu Province to evaluate the effects of monocultures and intercropping of wheat and alfalfa, along with precision cutting management of alfalfa, on yield, water use (WU), and water productivity (WP). Three cropping patterns were implemented: sole wheat, sole alfalfa, and wheat/alfalfa intercropping with seven alfalfa cutting treatments (T-20C1, T-20C2, T-20C3, T-10C1, T-10C2, T-10C3, and T). Results indicated that a significant increase in productivity of the intercropping system by 8.7 %<img>21.2 % in 2022 and 16.3 %<img>31.0 % in 2023 compared to that of monocultures. The land equivalent ratio of the intercropping system under the T-10C2 treatment reached 1.15 in 2022 and 1.21 in 2023. Compared with that of sole wheat, the yield of intercropped wheat under the T treatment was significantly reduced, by 25.6 % in 2022 and 12.7 % in 2023. Except for the T-20C1 treatment in 2022, the yield of intercropped wheat under other treatments did not exhibit statistically significant differences when compared with that of sole wheat in both 2022 and 2023. Compared with the yield under the T treatment, the yield of intercropped wheat under the T-10C1, T-20C3, T-10C2, and T-10 treatments increased significantly, by 23.3 %<img>46.3 % in 2022 and 13.9 %<img>20.4 % in 2023. Compared with that of sole alfalfa, the yield of intercropped alfalfa increased significantly, by 45.4 %<img>48.8 % in 2022 and 49.7 %<img>44.6 % in 2023. Compared with the sole cropping system, the WU of all treatments in the intercropping system decreased by 1.1 %<img>13.1 % compared to the sole cropping system in 2022, while the WP increased by 0.1 %<img>24.0 % in 2022 and 7.7 %<img>23.5 % in 2023. Overall, results indicated that optimized cutting of alfalfa improves WP and reduces total WU in wheat/alfalfa intercropping systems. This provides a water-saving solution for cultivated grasslands in arid areas, achieving a synergy between ecological restoration and agricultural WU.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"393 ","pages":"Article 109775"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144203288","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":"Tree and landscape characteristics outweigh insect abundance in driving bat activity in West African rice fields","authors":"Gonçalo A. Fernandes ,&nbsp;Mark Massaad ,&nbsp;Patrícia A.P. Chaves ,&nbsp;Ana Rainho","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109774","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109774","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The urgent need to sustainably feed a growing human population is particularly pressing in tropical regions where food security remains uncertain. Ecological intensification strategies, such as integrating nature-based solutions, can help achieve this goal by leveraging ecosystem services. Isolated trees in agricultural landscapes play a vital role in enhancing productivity and biodiversity, supporting organisms like insectivorous bats that provide pest control services. The implementation of measures to strengthen insectivorous bat populations holds significant potential to increase insect predation, suppress agricultural pests, and improve food security. Understanding how tree characteristics and surrounding landscapes influence bat foraging activity in staple tropical crops is thus essential. This study investigated how isolated trees influence the activity of bats and insects in smallholder rice fields in Guinea-Bissau. Specifically, we evaluated how tree characteristics and landscape features affect bat guild activity, insect abundance, and richness, as well as the indirect effects of insects on bats. Our findings indicate that larger, isolated trees of specific species located closer to other trees but further from wooded edges are associated with increased bat activity and richness, mediated partly by higher insect abundance. These results emphasise the ecological and agricultural importance of isolated trees in promoting biodiversity and enhancing pest suppression in agricultural landscapes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"393 ","pages":"Article 109774"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144223157","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":"Cascading effects of landscape, mediated by mesoclimate, on carabid communities and weed seed predation in winter cereals","authors":"Léa Uroy ,&nbsp;Aude Ernoult ,&nbsp;Cendrine Mony ,&nbsp;Olivier Jambon ,&nbsp;Caroline Le Maux ,&nbsp;Hervé Quénol ,&nbsp;Benjamin Carbonne","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109776","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109776","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Agricultural intensification, landscape simplification, and climate change threaten biodiversity and ecosystem services in arable lands. Increasing semi-natural habitats and landscape heterogeneity can mitigate these impacts by providing diverse habitats, resources and modifying climate at the landscape scale. As effective natural enemies in arable lands, carabids play a key role in pest and weed seed regulation and are influenced by field management and landscape. This study hypothesized that field management directly influences carabid communities and weed seed predation, while landscape factors affect them directly and indirectly through air temperature at the landscape scale. We sampled 77 winter cereal fields across 20 landscape windows representing regional landscape heterogeneity and composition. We monitored air temperature, carabid communities, and weed seed predation during two sampling sessions in late spring and early summer 2023. Piecewise Structural Equation Models were built to test for the direct and indirect effects of field-scale factors, landscape and climate at the landscape scale on carabids and weed seed predation. For both sampling sessions, results showed that the amount of semi-natural habitats and landscape heterogeneity primarily influence carabid activity-density and composition, which in turn affect weed seed predation. Grasslands, by providing resources and refuges, favour carabids but also appear linked to higher maximum air temperature, possibly influencing carabid composition via thermotolerance traits. The study highlights the importance of semi-natural habitats and landscape heterogeneity in shaping carabid communities and their ecosystem services in arable fields. Furthermore, for the first time, we have highlighted the potential influence of landscape context on carabids mediated by air temperature, which may affect weed regulation services through seed predation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"393 ","pages":"Article 109776"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144223158","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 stable soil carbon and microbes using rapid fractionation and metagenomics assays – First results screening fungal inoculants under wheat crops","authors":"Wolfram Buss ,&nbsp;Scott Ferguson ,&nbsp;Yolima Carrillo ,&nbsp;Justin Borevitz","doi":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109798","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agee.2025.109798","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Increasing soil carbon in agricultural systems can help mitigate and eventually reverse climate change. Soil microorganisms play a key role in regulating soil carbon accrual and stability. Questions remain about the link between microbes and soil carbon outcomes and how to leverage microbial processes. Here we screen microbial inoculation (endophytic fungal isolates) regarding their effects on soil carbon in a wheat pot trial using a rapid soil carbon fractionation assay and link the results with microbial community structure and function observations. Under the specific chemical and biological conditions of the plant-soil-environmental system, two of the 17 fungi tested increased soil carbon in close proximity to the roots by ∼15 %. This increase was associated with the medium stable, soil aggregate organic matter fraction (up to +21 %) and also mineral-associated organic matter, the long-term soil carbon storage (+10 %). Some of these changes were linked to a shift in predicted functional genes (whole metagenome, long read sequencing) and an increase in bacterial and fungal biomass (phospholipid fatty acid analysis). Microbial inoculation did not induce a statistically significant shift in the microbial composition (metagenomics), which, instead, correlated with the labile, particulate organic matter pool. While it is unclear whether the two endophytes directly influenced soil carbon cycling or had an indirect effect, through altering existing microbial processes, it demonstrates their potential for positive impacts on soil carbon that needs confirming in field trials. The combination of high throughput assays we present here could further help link carbon stability with microbial indicators and build more accurate soil carbon models.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":7512,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment","volume":"393 ","pages":"Article 109798"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144223042","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}