Development of soil organic matter stocks under different farm types and tillage systems in the Organic Arable Farming Experiment Gladbacherhof |
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Authors: | Franz Schulz Christopher Brock Harald Schmidt Klaus-Peter Franz |
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Institution: | 1. Research Station Gladbacherhof, Justus Liebig University Giessen, 65606 Villmar, Germany;2. Organic Farming, Justus Liebig University Giessen, 35394 Giessen, Germany;3. Foundation Ecology &4. Agriculture (S?L), 67089 Bad Dürkheim, Germany |
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Abstract: | In 1998, the Organic Arable Farming Experiment Gladbacherhof (OAFEG) was started in order to explore the impact of different organic arable production systems (mixed farming, stockless farming with rotational ley, stockless cash crop farming) and of different tillage intensities (conventional plough as a full inversion tillage, two-layer plough, inversion tillage at reduced depth, non-inversion tillage) on sustainability parameters. In this article, we present results on the development of soil organic matter (SOM) levels. Starting with organic mixed farming with approximately 0.7 livestock units (LU) per ha cattle before set-up of the experiment, only the mixed farming system in the experiment was able to maintain SOM levels. The stockless system with ley maintained soil organic carbon (SOC), but lost soil total nitrogen (STN), and the stockless cash crop system had a significant SOM loss in the magnitude of 7.7 t SOM ha?1, or roughly 8.4% of the initial SOM mass. Reducing tillage intensity had no impact on SOM masses, but only on organic matter stratification in soils. We conclude that specialization of organic farms towards stockless arable crop production requires special attention on SOM reproduction to avoid detrimental effects. Further, reduced tillage intensity does not necessarily have a positive effect on SOM. |
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Keywords: | soil quality organic matter long-term field experiment organic farming |
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