A decision support framework assessing management impacts on crop yield, soil carbon changes and nitrogen losses to the environment

M.D. Young, G.H. Ros, W. De Vries
2020 European Journal of Soil Science  
Agricultural management practices have multiple impacts on farming systems, including crop yield, soil fertility parameters such as soil organic carbon (SOC), and environmental quality. Agricultural decision support tools (DSTs) are key in sustainable farm strategies to optimize yield and minimize environmental losses because both the current agroecosystem properties as well as the effectiveness of management practices are highly variable in time and space. Here, we introduce a highly
more » ... n framework focusing on the evaluation of agronomic measures to reach agronomic and environmental targets. We demonstrate the potential of this approach by a proof of principle for 81 selected farm types across Europe, focusing on measures with respect to crop rotation, fertilization and soil tillage. Synthesizing data from long-term experiments and meta-analytical models, we estimated the impact of these measures on crop yield, SOC and N surpluses, while accounting for site- Highlights • We find a lack of empirical-based DSTs holistically assessing agronomic practices and indicators. • Meta-analytical models were used to assess impacts of best fertilizer, tillage and crop measures.
doi:10.1111/ejss.13024 fatcat:qtur2pd645bangu7uvxf6tq5dq