Integrated rather than organic farming history facilitates soil nitrogen turnover and N2O reduction in a green rye – silage maize cropping sequence

Summary

Abstract Soil gross mineral N production and consumption processes are crucial regulators of plant productivity and N loss from croplands. Substituting synthetic fertilizers by integrating legumes in cultivation systems is common in organic farming, but research on its long-term impact on dynamics of gross soil N transformation and associated environmental N loss is scarce. In particular, studies at a temporal resolution that allows for a mechanistic understanding of long-term effects of organic farming are missing. Therefore, we determined gross N turnover rates of ammonification, nitrification, and ammonium and nitrate immobilization at monthly temporal resolution during a full green rye-maize cropping sequence. Measurements were carried out at sites with same pedo-climatic background bu