Effect of mineral and organic fertilization on crop yield, nitrogen uptake, carbon and nitrogen balances, as well as soil organic carbon content and dynamics: results from 20 European long-term field experiments of the twenty-first century

• Published in: Archiv für Acker- und Pflanzenbau und Bodenkunde 2013-08, Vol.59 (8), p.1017-1040
• Main Authors: Körschens, Martin, Albert, Erhard, Armbruster, Martin, Barkusky, Dietmar, Baumecker, Michael, Behle-Schalk, Lothar, Bischoff, Reiner, Čergan, Zoran, Ellmer, Frank, Herbst, Friedhelm, Hoffmann, Sandor, Hofmann, Bodo, Kismanyoky, Tamas, Kubat, Jaromir, Kunzova, Eva, Lopez-Fando, Christina, Merbach, Ines, Merbach, Wolfgang, Pardor, Maria Teresa, Rogasik, Jutta, Rühlmann, Jörg, Spiegel, Heide, Schulz, Elke, Tajnsek, Anton, Toth, Zoltan, Wegener, Hans, Zorn, Wilfried
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aquatic plants; Carbon; carbon and nitrogen balances; crop yields; long-term experiments; Nitrogen; nitrogen uptake; soil organic carbon; Soil sciences; Solanum tuberosum; Triticum aestivum
• ISSN: 0365-0340; 1476-3567
• DOI: 10.1080/03650340.2012.704548

Assembled results from 20 European long-term experiments (LTE), mainly from the first decade of the twenty-first century, are presented. The included LTEs from 17 sites are the responsibility of institutional members of the International Working Group of Long-term Experiments in the IUSS. Between the sites, average annual temperatures differ between 8.1 and 15.3°C, annual precipitation between 450 and 1400 mm, and soil clay contents between 3 and 31%. On average of 350 yield comparisons, combined mineral and organic fertilization resulted in a 6% yield benefit compared with mineral fertilization alone; in the case of winter wheat, the smallest effect was 3%, the largest effect, seen with potatoes, was 9%. All unfertilized treatments are depleted in soil organic carbon (SOC), varying between 0.36 and 2.06% SOC. The differences in SOC in unfertilized plots compared with the respective plots with combined mineral (NPK) and organic (10 t ha −1 farmyard manure) fertilization range between 0.11 and 0.72%, with an average of 0.3% (corresponding to ∼15 t ha −1 ). Consequently, the use of arable soils for carbon sequestration is limited and of low relevance and merely depleted soils can temporarily accumulate carbon up to their optimum C content.