Cover crops support the climate change mitigation potential of agroecosystems

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer review

Authors

Research Organisations

External Research Organisations

  • University of Applied Sciences Weihenstephan-Triesdorf
View graph of relations

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere0302139
Number of pages20
JournalPLOS ONE
Volume19
Issue number5
Publication statusPublished - 8 May 2024

Abstract

Cover crops have the potential to mitigate climate change by reducing negative impacts of agriculture on ecosystems. This study is first to quantify the net climate change mitigation impact of cover crops including land-use effects. A systematic literature and data review was conducted to identify major drivers for climate benefits and costs of cover crops in maize (Zea maize L.) production systems. The results indicate that cover crops lead to a net climate change mitigation impact (NCCMI) of 3.30 Mg CO2e ha-1 a-1. We created four scenarios with different impact weights of the drivers and all of them showing a positive NCCMI. Carbon land benefit, the carbon opportunity costs based on maize yield gains following cover crops, is the major contributor to the NCCMI (34.5% of all benefits). Carbon sequestration is the second largest contributor (33.8%). The climate costs of cover crops are mainly dominated by emissions from their seed production and foregone benefits due to land use for cover crops seeds. However, these two costs account for only 15.8% of the benefits. Extrapolating these results, planting cover crops before all maize acreage in the EU results in a climate change mitigation of 49.80 million Mg CO2e a-1, which is equivalent to 13.0% of the EU’s agricultural emissions. This study highlights the importance of incorporating cover crops into sustainable cropping systems to minimize the agricultural impact to climate change.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Sustainable Development Goals

Cite this

Cover crops support the climate change mitigation potential of agroecosystems. / Schön, Jonas; Gentsch, Norman; Breunig, Peter.
In: PLOS ONE, Vol. 19, No. 5 , e0302139, 08.05.2024.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer review

Schön J, Gentsch N, Breunig P. Cover crops support the climate change mitigation potential of agroecosystems. PLOS ONE. 2024 May 8;19(5 ):e0302139. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0302139
Download
@article{f8c28d7fe7ca43a199086b90237a67db,
title = "Cover crops support the climate change mitigation potential of agroecosystems",
abstract = "Cover crops have the potential to mitigate climate change by reducing negative impacts of agriculture on ecosystems. This study is first to quantify the net climate change mitigation impact of cover crops including land-use effects. A systematic literature and data review was conducted to identify major drivers for climate benefits and costs of cover crops in maize (Zea maize L.) production systems. The results indicate that cover crops lead to a net climate change mitigation impact (NCCMI) of 3.30 Mg CO2e ha-1 a-1. We created four scenarios with different impact weights of the drivers and all of them showing a positive NCCMI. Carbon land benefit, the carbon opportunity costs based on maize yield gains following cover crops, is the major contributor to the NCCMI (34.5% of all benefits). Carbon sequestration is the second largest contributor (33.8%). The climate costs of cover crops are mainly dominated by emissions from their seed production and foregone benefits due to land use for cover crops seeds. However, these two costs account for only 15.8% of the benefits. Extrapolating these results, planting cover crops before all maize acreage in the EU results in a climate change mitigation of 49.80 million Mg CO2e a-1, which is equivalent to 13.0% of the EU{\textquoteright}s agricultural emissions. This study highlights the importance of incorporating cover crops into sustainable cropping systems to minimize the agricultural impact to climate change.",
author = "Jonas Sch{\"o}n and Norman Gentsch and Peter Breunig",
note = "Publisher Copyright: Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2024 Sch{\"o}n et al.",
year = "2024",
month = may,
day = "8",
doi = "10.1371/journal.pone.0302139",
language = "English",
volume = "19",
journal = "PLOS ONE",
issn = "1932-6203",
publisher = "Public Library of Science",
number = "5 ",

}

Download

TY - JOUR

T1 - Cover crops support the climate change mitigation potential of agroecosystems

AU - Schön, Jonas

AU - Gentsch, Norman

AU - Breunig, Peter

N1 - Publisher Copyright: Copyright: © 2024 Schön et al.

PY - 2024/5/8

Y1 - 2024/5/8

N2 - Cover crops have the potential to mitigate climate change by reducing negative impacts of agriculture on ecosystems. This study is first to quantify the net climate change mitigation impact of cover crops including land-use effects. A systematic literature and data review was conducted to identify major drivers for climate benefits and costs of cover crops in maize (Zea maize L.) production systems. The results indicate that cover crops lead to a net climate change mitigation impact (NCCMI) of 3.30 Mg CO2e ha-1 a-1. We created four scenarios with different impact weights of the drivers and all of them showing a positive NCCMI. Carbon land benefit, the carbon opportunity costs based on maize yield gains following cover crops, is the major contributor to the NCCMI (34.5% of all benefits). Carbon sequestration is the second largest contributor (33.8%). The climate costs of cover crops are mainly dominated by emissions from their seed production and foregone benefits due to land use for cover crops seeds. However, these two costs account for only 15.8% of the benefits. Extrapolating these results, planting cover crops before all maize acreage in the EU results in a climate change mitigation of 49.80 million Mg CO2e a-1, which is equivalent to 13.0% of the EU’s agricultural emissions. This study highlights the importance of incorporating cover crops into sustainable cropping systems to minimize the agricultural impact to climate change.

AB - Cover crops have the potential to mitigate climate change by reducing negative impacts of agriculture on ecosystems. This study is first to quantify the net climate change mitigation impact of cover crops including land-use effects. A systematic literature and data review was conducted to identify major drivers for climate benefits and costs of cover crops in maize (Zea maize L.) production systems. The results indicate that cover crops lead to a net climate change mitigation impact (NCCMI) of 3.30 Mg CO2e ha-1 a-1. We created four scenarios with different impact weights of the drivers and all of them showing a positive NCCMI. Carbon land benefit, the carbon opportunity costs based on maize yield gains following cover crops, is the major contributor to the NCCMI (34.5% of all benefits). Carbon sequestration is the second largest contributor (33.8%). The climate costs of cover crops are mainly dominated by emissions from their seed production and foregone benefits due to land use for cover crops seeds. However, these two costs account for only 15.8% of the benefits. Extrapolating these results, planting cover crops before all maize acreage in the EU results in a climate change mitigation of 49.80 million Mg CO2e a-1, which is equivalent to 13.0% of the EU’s agricultural emissions. This study highlights the importance of incorporating cover crops into sustainable cropping systems to minimize the agricultural impact to climate change.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85192618317&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0302139

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0302139

M3 - Article

C2 - 38717995

AN - SCOPUS:85192618317

VL - 19

JO - PLOS ONE

JF - PLOS ONE

SN - 1932-6203

IS - 5

M1 - e0302139

ER -

By the same author(s)