Selecting suitable predecessors: ecosystem services from cover crops to reduce tillage and fertilizer

Ecosystem services from cover crops can reduce reliance on external inputs and intensive management practices; however, these benefits depend on crop sequence compatibility. The effect of cover crop selection on weed suppression and crop yield was tested by no-till planting winter and summer cash crops into different cover crops that were terminated and used as mulches. Management treatments involving supplemental weeding and fertilizer were also applied to summer cash crops. Overall, this research evaluated 80 combinations of cover crops, cash crops, and management treatments across four site-years in a total of 1280 experimental units. In the absence of supplemental management, cash crops exhibited a 2.6-fold mean difference in weed biomass and a 7.3-fold mean difference in yield when no-till planted into the best- versus worst-performing cover crops, indicating that cover crop selection impacted ecosystem services. Insights from this research can guide cover crop selection and facilitate ecological intensification of agriculture.