Diverse crop rotations offset yield-scaled nitrogen losses via denitrification
Abstract Denitrification, a major source of gaseous nitrogen emissions from agricultural soils, is influenced by management. Practices promoting belowground diversity are suggested to support sustainable agriculture, but how they modulate nitrogen losses via denitrification remains inconclusive. Here we sampled 106 cereal fields spanning a 3000 km North-South gradient across Europe and compiled 56 associated climatic, soil, microbial and management variables. We show that increased denitrification potential was associated with higher proportion of time with crop cover over the last ten years and was best predicted by microbial biomass and microbial functional guilds involved in nitrogen cycling, in particular denitrification. We also demonstrate that several diversification practices affect the variation in denitrification potential predictors, suggesting a trade-off between agricultural diversification and nitrogen losses via denitrification. However, increased crop diversity in rotations improved yield-scaled denitrification, highlighting the potential of this practice to minimize nitrogen losses while contributing to sustainable food production.
Authors
- Samiran Banerjee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1402-0171)
- Chantal Herzog (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3085-2015)
- Matthias C. Rillig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3541-7853)
- Giulia Vico (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7849-2653)
- Anna Edlinger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3538-2371)
- Monique E. Smith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5913-3770)
- Aurélien Saghaï (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7069-2159)
- Sana Romdhane
- Fernando T. Maestre
- M. van der Heijden
- David Pescador
- Laurent Philippot (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3461-4492)
- Pablo García-Palacios
- Sara Hallin
- Riccardo Bommarco
- Gina Garland
Institutions
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES)
- Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (ES)
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SE)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR)
- Instituto de Ciencias Agrarias (ES)
- Berlin Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (DE)
- Institut Agro Dijon (FR)
- Agroscope (CH)
- North Dakota State University (US)
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (SA)
- Freie Universität Berlin (DE)
- Wageningen University & Research (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Communications Earth & Environment
- Published
- 2025-12-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-03116-0
- Primary Topic
- Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00