Are there universal soil responses to cover cropping? A systematic review

Authors: HAO, XIAOXIAO - Hohai University; ABOU, NAJM - University Of California, Davis; Steenwerth, Kerri; NOCCO, M - University Of California, Davis; BASSET, C - University Of California, Davis; DACCACHE, A - University Of California, Davis

Submitted to: Science of the Total Environment
Publication Type: Literature Review
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/26/2022
Publication Date: 12/5/2022
Citation: Hao, X., Abou, N.M., Steenwerth, K.L., Nocco, M.A., Basset, C., Daccache, A. 2022. Are there universal soil responses to cover cropping? A systematic review. Science of the Total Environment. 861. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160600.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160600

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Cover cropping is commonly acknowledged for promoting soil health in agriculture. However, contradictory findings on the benefits of cover crops for soil health, crop productivity, economic and ecological factors, as well as the influence of inherent soil parameters on such benefits exist in the scientific literature. Here, we critically assessed evidence of cover crop benefits through a systematic review of the published literature. To access relevant papers, we searched the literature for cover crops and soil health indicators using Scopus (1996-2020), ScienceDirect (1996-2020) and Google scholar (1970-1996) with specific keywords and combinations. Only English research papers including experimental plots and control groups were considered. We analyzed 102 unique peer-reviewed papers and 1494 corresponding unique plots encompassing various cover crops, soil textures, climates, management systems and experimental duration (1-3 years, 4-6 years, 7-10 years and over 10 years). Strong evidence suggests that cover crops can enhance soil structure and promote soil health by improving soil physical and chemical properties, including saturated hydraulic conductivity (105.57%), total organic carbon (10.07%), and total nitrogen (20.19%). On the other hand, cover crops exhibit ambiguous effects on properties like bulk density and porosity. In most cases, cover crops increase the soil carbon content, including microbial biomass carbon (19.48%) and particular organic carbon (49.52%). In this systematic review, we found limited studies on the effect of cover crops on soil health as influenced by soil texture, regional climate, rainfall and duration of the cover crop practices. The paucity of long-term regional systematic research of soil physics, chemistry and biology makes it difficult to forecast future implications of cover crops on soil health indicators.