The role of cover crops for cropland soil carbon,  nitrogen leaching, and agricultural yields –  a global simulation study with LPJmL (V. 5.0-tillage-cc)

Porwollik, Vera; Rolinski, Susanne; Heinke, Jens; von Bloh, Werner; Schaphoff, Sibyll; Müller, Christoph

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-957-2022

Articles | Volume 19, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-957-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-957-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 3

Research article

|

15 Feb 2022

Research article |

| 15 Feb 2022

The role of cover crops for cropland soil carbon, nitrogen leaching, and agricultural yields – a global simulation study with LPJmL (V. 5.0-tillage-cc)

Vera Porwollik, Susanne Rolinski, Jens Heinke, Werner von Bloh, Sibyll Schaphoff, and Christoph Müller

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-957-2022-supplement

Data sets

LPJmL5.0-tillage-cc model source code, management simulation outputs, and R script for post-processing data (1.0.1) V. Porwollik, S. Rolinski, J. Heinke, W. von Bloh, S. Schaphoff, T. Herzfeld, and C. Müller https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5178070

Model code and software

LPJmL5.0-tillage-cc model source code, management simulation outputs, and R script for post-processing data (1.0.1) V. Porwollik, S. Rolinski, J. Heinke, W. von Bloh, S. Schaphoff, T. Herzfeld, and C. Müller https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5178070

Download

Article (1282 KB)
Full-text XML

Short summary

The study assesses impacts of grass cover crop cultivation on cropland during main-crop off-season periods applying the global vegetation model LPJmL (V.5.0-tillage-cc). Compared to simulated bare-soil fallowing practices, cover crops led to increased soil carbon content and reduced nitrogen leaching rates on the majority of global cropland. Yield responses of main crops following cover crops vary with location, duration of altered management, crop type, water regime, and tillage practice.