The effects of cover crops on phosphorus cycling in agricultural soils of California
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Phosphorus (P) limits agricultural productivity because most soil P is found in pools of low plant-availability and external inputs that are used to increase plant-available P are only partially recovered in crops, resulting in low P use efficiency (PUE). Cover crops could reduce external P input requirements, increase PUE and stimulate soil P cycling by mobilizing soil P and by retaining soil P via plant uptake, especially in low-input agricultural systems. This dissertation seeks to determine if cover crops have similar effects on soil P cycling in intensive agricultural systems with relatively high soil P, using two long-term experiments in California, greenhouse experiments and nutrient budgets. In both field and laboratory conditions, legume cover crops had a greater potential to mobilize soil P than other cover crops, although in practice they did not mobilize soil P. In contrast, cereals had the strongest effect on soil P availability and P cycling by taking up more soil P than other cover crops. Regardless of cover crop type, P taken up in cover crop biomass was recycled rapidly in these systems: cover crop residues and mineral fertilizer contributed similarly to soil pools and wheat P uptake, with a greater contribution at lower soil P availability. However, cover crops had relatively small effects on long-term soil P dynamics relative to compost addition that was the main factor driving differences in P budgets computed at the farm-scale. Overall, cover crops have the potential to affect soil P cycling in these systems with relatively high soil P, although to a lesser degree than do composts.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2015 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Maltais-Landry, Gabriel | |
|---|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Biology. | |
| Primary advisor | Vitousek, Peter Morrison | |
| Thesis advisor | Vitousek, Peter Morrison | |
| Thesis advisor | Fendorf, Scott | |
| Thesis advisor | Field, Christopher B | |
| Thesis advisor | Scow, Kate M | |
| Advisor | Fendorf, Scott | |
| Advisor | Field, Christopher B | |
| Advisor | Scow, Kate M |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Gabriel Maltais-Landry. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Biology. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2015. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2015 by Gabriel Maltais-Landry
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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