Climate drives global soil carbon sequestration and crop yield changes under conservation agriculture
Item
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Title
Climate drives global soil carbon sequestration and crop yield changes under conservation agriculture
Global Change Biology
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Creator
Wenjuan Sun
Josep G. Canadell
Lijun Yu
Lingfei Yu
Wen Zhang
Pete Smith
Tony Fischer
Yao Huang
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Subject
climate
conservation agriculture
crop yield
meta-analysis
soil organic carbon
win-win outcome
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Abstract
Conservation agriculture has been shown to have multiple benefits for soils, crop yield and the environment, and consequently, no-till, the central practice of conservation agriculture, has rapidly expanded. However, studies show that the potential for carbon (C) sequestration in no-till farming sometimes is not realized, let alone the ability to maintain or improve crop yield. Here we present a global analysis of no-till-induced changes of soil C and crop yield based on 260 and 1,970 paired studies; respectively. We show that, relative to local conventional tillage, arid regions can benefit the most from conservation agriculture by achieving a win-win outcome of enhanced C sequestration and increased crop yield. However, more humid regions are more likely to increase SOC only, while some colder regions have yield losses and soil C loss as likely as soil C gains. In addition to site-specific characteristics and management, a careful assessment of the regional climate is needed to determine the potential benefits of adopting conservation agriculture.
