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Article Dans Une Revue Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems Année : 2014

Contribution of relay intercropping with legume cover crops on nitrogen dynamics in organic grain systems

Résumé

Nitrogen (N) management is a key issue in livestock-free organic grain systems. Relay intercropping with a legume cover crop can be a useful technique for improving N availability when two cash crops are grown successively. We evaluated the benefits of four relay intercropped legumes (Medicago lupulina, Medicago sativa, Trifolium pratense and Trifolium repens) on N dynamics and their contribution to the associated and subsequent cash crops in six fields of organic farms located in South-East France. None of the relay intercropped legumes affected the N uptake of the associated winter wheat but all significantly increased the N uptake of the succeeding spring crop, either maize or spring wheat. The improvement of the N nutrition of the subsequent maize crop induced a 30 % increase in grain yield. All relay intercropped legumes enriched the soil-plant system in N through symbiotic fixation. From 71 to 96 % of the N contained in the shoots of the legumes in late autumn was derived from the atmosphere (Ndfa) and varied between 38 and 67 kg Ndfa ha(-1). Even if the cover crop is expected to limit N leaching during wintertime, the presence of relay intercropped legumes had no significant effect on N leaching during winter compared to the control.
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Dates et versions

hal-01173353 , version 1 (07-07-2015)

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Camille Amossé, Marie-Helene Jeuffroy, Bruno Mary, Christophe David. Contribution of relay intercropping with legume cover crops on nitrogen dynamics in organic grain systems. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, 2014, 98 (1), pp.1 - 14. ⟨10.1007/s10705-013-9591-8⟩. ⟨hal-01173353⟩
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