Search

The authors would like to apologize for missing the correction provided below: To calculate the tea bag decomposition, the final weight of the tea bag instead of the % mass loss (i.e. 1-final weight/initial weight) was taken. Hence, the negative partial correlation originally found should be positive. The corrections have been made in the online version of the manuscript. Table 4. Partial correlation coefficients (ρ) between the labile organic carbon fractions expressed in mg kg−1 soil (Hy-DOC, DOC, POXC, HWEC and POMC) and % (TOC) and various soil chemical, physical and biological indicators used as dependent variable, corrected for the long term field experiments (LTEs). The number of samples used in the analyses was 167, but 101 for earthworm number, and earthworms biomass. In the table also the average correlation coefficients for each indicator group (chemical, physical and biological indicators) is reported, in addition to the overall average correlation coefficient (calculated across all the indicators). [Table presented] Hy-DOC hydrophilic dissolved organic carbon, DOC dissolved organic carbon, POXC permanganate oxidizable carbon, HWEC hot water extractable carbon, POMC particulate organic matter carbon, TOC total organic carbon, TON total nitrogen, CEC cation exchange capacity, WSA water stable aggregates, BD bulk density, MBC microbial biomass carbon, MBN microbial biomass nitrogen, SR soil respiration, qCO2 metabolic quotient, qMIC microbial quotient. *p ≤ 0.01, **p ≤ 0.001, ***p ≤ 0.0001.

"Achieving sufficient and stable crop yields with limited cropland and without excessive use of non-renewable resources under a changing climate are the multifunctional challenges of future agriculture. We compared the performance and sustainability of organic and conventional cropping systems in the DOK long-term systems comparison after 40 years of management. For the first time we present a comprehensive evaluation of the whole DOK design including the systems with reduced stocking rates. Yield, nutrient dynamic and soil quality evaluations show clearly the trade-offs between productivity and sustainability in organic as well as in conventional systems. Low input conventional systems reveal the best input-output performance but lowered soil quality; regular organic systems were most sustainable but achieved only moderate non-legume yields."

In Europe, the plough is commonly used for soil tillage. Its history is dating back to the early days of agriculture and hence its use is deeply rooted in European culture. With ongoing heavier machines, larger fields and less landscape diversity, ploughing contributed to large-scale soil degradation. Long-term sustainability of the current ploughing practice is therefore questioned. In organic farming, ploughing is seen as an important tool for weed control, ley termination and incorporation of organic material. In the light of climate change and increasing pressure on food security, also organic farming practices need to be improved. The aim of reduced tillage in organic systems is therefore to replace ploughing by less intensive tillage but still to be able for mechanical weed control. The long-term trial in Frick was established in autumn 2002 on a heavy clay soil (stagnic eutric Cambisol) with the aim to compare continuous reduced tillage with traditional ploughing (18-20 cm) under organic farming conditions in the long run. In this trial, reduced tillage is determined as regular soil tillage to maximum 10 cm by chisel tillage with wide sweeps. Occasional aeration to max. 20 cm with a chisel at a maximum of once per rotation period and ley termination by shallow inversion (5 cm) with a special plough (“Stoppelhobel”) allow for system optimisation. After three rotation periods and 15 years, soil quality improved substantially by conversion to reduced tillage. Topsoil organic carbon content increased by 25 % and microbial biomass and activity by 32-34 % compared to ploughing. Organic carbon was stabilised by clay in the lower soil layers. Earthworms profited from reduced tillage with a higher reproduction. Belowground biodiversity also increased and shifted to more fungal based communities. Yield performance was similar to ploughing across all years but less stable with both higher and lower yields in single years. Crop performance under reduced tillage was more dependent on the current weather situation, especially N supply in early spring that is largely provided by soil and farmyard manure mineralisation in organic farming. Weed infestation under reduced tillage also increased and was seen to lower yields when N supply was sufficient. Perennial grasses and Convolvulus species were the most problematic weeds at this site. At this stage, it can be concluded that continuous reduced tillage is possible in organic farming. Soil conservation aims are fully met. Yet, management is more difficult and needs to be combined with other strategies like green manures, strategic soil aeration and a more sophisticated weed control. At the conference, a compilation of results from 15 years of research in the FiBL long-term trial will be presented.

In dem Artikel wird über den Einfluss der biodynamischen Präparate auf die Bodenqualität, Ertrag und Produktequalität im Fricker Langzeitversuch in den Jahren 2002-2019 berichtet.

Das Merkblatt erläutert das Vorgehen für die Bodenbeprobung und bietet Unterstützung bei der Wahl des Analyseprogramms und der Interpretation der Laboranalysen. Es zeigt auch die Bedeutung der einzelnen Nährstoffe im Biolandbau auf und die Konsequenzen einer Unter- oder Überversorgung.

Tento informační list shrnuje nejnovější výsledky výzkumu o účinnosti a používání biohnojiv.

Diese Broschüre richtet sich an Exekutivorgane des Bodenschutzes und informierte Bodennutzer. Siestellt Möglichkeiten dar, die zur Entwicklung eines Referenzwertes für den Gehalt landwirtschaftlicher Mineralböden an organischer Bodensubstanz (OBS) oder Humus zur Verfügung stehen. Sie bezieht Schweizer Regelwerke sowie die Erkenntnisse und Meinungen aus einem Workshop mit Interessensvertretern der Landwirtschaft, des Umweltschutzes und des kantonalen Vollzugs mit ein, der am 16.11.2017 stattgefunden hat.

La présente brochure s’adresseaux organes exécutifs de protection des sols et aux professionnels avertis. Elle présente les possibilités d’établir une valeur de référence applicable à la teneur en matière organique des sols minéraux agricoles. Elle intègre la réglementation suisse ainsi que les acquiset les avis d'un atelier réunissant des acteurs de l'agriculture, de la protection de l'environnement et de l’exécution cantonale, qui s'est tenu le 16novembre 2017

Supply chain (SC) structures become more dynamic and complex with an increasing globality. Complexity in SCs relates to three main dimensions. Spatial, horizontal, and vertical complexity are associated with higher uncertainty and missing transparency in Supply Chain Management (SCM). In modern SCM it is always assumed that the SCs are of global nature and reach across borders into different cultures (Vachon and Klassen, 2002, p. 219). This led to a competitive environment where company networks face each other instead of single firms (Kotzab et al., 2015, pp. 525–526). As there are many definitions of Supply Chain Complexity (SCC) that differ to some extent, the definition that underlines the basic approach of this paper is by. In SCM, SCC is defined as a combination of product, process, and network complexity (Bozarth et al., 2009, p. 80). SCC management is a challenging task for SC managers all over the world. If a company is about to fail at SCC management, negative consequences will be generated. These consequences reach from inconsistent incoming material quality to higher transaction costs and a general inflexibility. It is impossible for SC managers to eliminate complexity which establishes an importance to create an understanding of drivers in SCC, determine, evaluate, and implement strategies to reduce complexity. Higher complexity leads to an overall worse performance in SCM, forming an incentive to manage SCC . To review a research field, bibliometric analysis technique is applied. The analysis brings forth the main achievement in answering the following objectives: a) Providing the intellectual foundation of SCC, i.e. the most impactful articles, authors, institutions, and journals as well as the academic output. b) Providing the interdisciplinary character of SCC.

Der Biolandbau trägt mit dem Humusaufbau im Boden aktiv zur Verbesserung der Fruchtbarkeit, Wasserhaltekapazität und Struktur des Bodens bei. Er sichert so die langfristige Leistungsfähigkeit der Böden, verbessert das Wasserangebot für die Kulturen und reduziert Bodenverluste durch Erosion.

Anhand von Daten aus dem DOK Langzeit-Feldversuch in der Schweiz zeigen die Autoren, dass ökologische Anbausysteme im Mittel rund 40 % geringere flächenbezogene Emissionen aufweisen als konventionelle Systeme. Die geringsten Lachgas-Emissionen wurden im biodynamischen Anbausystem ermittelt, was möglicherweise auf die langjährige Kompostanwendung, die sich positiv auf den ph-Wert und auf das Bodenleben sowie die Bodenstruktur auswirkt, zurückzuführen ist.

Forty years of research in the DOK trial resulted in more than 120 peer-reviewed publications investigating effects of farming systems on a wide range of scientific disciplines within agronomic and environmental research. It is the oldest still existing system comparison trial comparing organic and conventional agricultural practice worldwide. The field trial has been subject to applied and fundamental research but the presentation of findings from the DOK trial is beyond the scope of this chapter. Instead, we give detailed insights into the history of implementation of the DOK trial and show how the evolution of agricultural practices influenced the management practices applied in the experiment. From a scientific point of view, changing experimental treatments in the course of an experiment is a challenging task. Yet, following a system approach and the development of organic and conventional farming necessitate a periodical reevaluation of practices implemented within the treatments to mirror changes in large-scale farming. To reflect on these developments and to present in-depth insight on the history of management of the DOK trial, we review and discuss changes implemented in management practice during the course of the last 40 years.

In this study, we checked the potential of bioirrigation – defined as a process of hydraulic lift where transfer of water occurs from deep soil layers to top soil layers through plant roots. We tested this in a pigeon pea (PP) – finger millet (FM) intercropping system in a field study for two consecutive growing seasons (2016/17 and 2017/18) at two contrasting sites in Bengaluru and Kolli Hills, India. Our objective was also to optimize the spatial arrangement of the intercropped plants (2 PP:8 FM), using either a row-wise or a mosaic design. The field trial results clearly showed that spatial arrangement of component plants affected the yield in an intercropping system. The row-wise intercropping was more effective than mosaic treatments at the Bengaluru field site, while at Kolli Hills, both row-wise and mosaic treatment performed equally. Importantly, biofertilizer application enhanced the yield of intercropping and monoculture treatments. This effect was not influenced by the spatial arrangement of component plants and by the location of the field experiment. The yield advantage in intercropping was mainly due to the release of PP from interspecific competition. Despite a yield increase in intercropping treatments, we did not see a positive effect of intercropping or biofertilizer on water relations of FM, this further explains why PP dominated the competitive interaction, which resulted in yield advantage in intercropping. FM in intercropping had significantly lower leaf water potentials than in monoculture, likely due to strong interspecific competition for soil moisture in intercropping treatments. Our study indicates that identity plant species and spatial arrangement/density of neighbouring plant is essential for designing a bioirrigation based intercropping system.

Die Landwirtschaft spielt im Klimawandel eine bedeutende Rolle. Als Verursacherin von Klimagasen trägt sie einerseits zur globalen Erwärmung bei, verfügt aber andererseits auch über ein grosses Potenzial zur Minderung des Klimawandels. In diesem Faktenblatt wird die vielseitige Rolle der Landwirtschaft im Klimawandel näher beleuchtet. Dabei werden verschiedene wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse dargestellt, die das Potenzial des Biolandbaus zur Minderung des Klimawandels zeigen.

Despite the increase in organic cropland, knowledge on the impact of organic farming on soil-derived nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) emissions is rather limited. To improve the knowledge base, N2O and CH4 fluxes were investigated in a 571 day lasting cropping sequence in the “DOK” field trial. Two organic and two non-organic farming systems and an unfertilized control were chosen. For the whole monitoring, the two organic systems combined emitted 40% less N2O than the two non-organic ones cumulated on area-scale. Yield-scaled cumulated N2O emissions were nearly 10% lower for the organic systems combined, despite the yield gap of 27%. We found that besides N input, management induced soil quality properties drive differences in N2O emissions between farming systems as well. This supports the effort to invest in soil quality by ecological intensification not only to lower the environmental burden of agriculture but also to mitigate greenhouse gases

Gardens are hot spots for urban biodiversity and provide habitats for many plant and animal species, both above- and below-ground. Furthermore, gardens provide a wide range of ecosystem services, including carbon (C) storage and nutrient cycling. Although the soil is the foundation of sustainable gardens providing those ecosystem services, very little is known about the consequences of garden management on soil quality. Here we present a comprehensive assessment of urban garden soil quality, including biotic and abiotic site characteristics combined with land-use history and garden management information in a multivariate evaluation. A set of 44 soil quality indicators was measured at 170 sites of 85 gardens in the city of Zurich, Switzerland, comprising contrastingly managed garden habitats along a gradient of urban density. Taken together, our results show that garden management was the driving factor that influenced soil quality and soil functions. Eco-physiological soil quality indices were useful to identify differences in disturbance and intensity of soil use, showing highest microbial [microbial biomass (Cmic)/soil organic carbon (SOC)] and lowest metabolic (qCO2) quotients in perennial grass sites compared to annual vegetable sites. Despite the intensity of soil disturbance in annual vegetable and flower beds, the highest endogeic earthworm biomass and diversity were found in those habitats. Whereas decomposition of green tea bags was higher in grass sites. Soil heavy metal contents varied considerably and could not be linked with garden management practices, but with spatial patterns of industry and traffic. We conclude that understanding soil quality in urban ecosystems needs multi-indicator frameworks to capture the complexity of soil characteristics and the influencing factors in space and time. This study contributes to a better understanding of urban gardens and enhances the development of sustainable soil management strategies aimed at long-term improvement of soil quality and related ecosystem services in cities.

In Europe, the plough is a common machine for soil tillage. Its history is dating back to the early days of agriculture and hence its use is deeply rooted in European culture. With ongoing heavier machines, larger fields and less landscape diversity, ploughing contributed to large-scale soil degradation. The bare soil surface is prone to erosion; the risk of soil fertility decrease is high. Long-term sustainability of current ploughing practices is therefore questioned. In organic farming, ploughing is seen as an important tool for weed control, ley termination and incorporation of organic material. Yet, also organic farming practices can still be improved. The aim was therefore to replace ploughing by less intensive tillage methods and to monitor changes in soil quality and yield performance. At FiBL, research started roughly in 2000 with both scientific and practice oriented trials and collaborations.

Date palm is an important crop in Morocco, Tunisia and other drylands with a high agricultural, economic and cultural value. Harsh environmental conditions of those areas, further accelerated by climate change and the spread of root diseases, threaten date palm cultivation. To overcome limitations in productivity, high inputs of mineral fertilizers and pesticides are applied. However, these external inputs strongly affect the environment and livelihoods. The project aims at establishing an integrated microbe-assisted fertilization approach, combining the inoculation of native soil microbes, namely arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) during the different date palm growth stages, with adapted agricultural management practices using organic amendments and mixed-cropping in Morocco and Tunisia. As initial step, we established a culture collection of native microbes, isolated from date palm roots and rhizosphere composed of 24 AMF isolates including eight species from six genera, twelve bacterial endophyte isolates composed of Paenibacillus, Mycobacterium, and Achromobacter species and 34 PGPR isolates. Functional characterization of PGPRs revealed that around 50 % can solubilize phosphorus and potassium and between 9 % and 68 % have the ability to produce siderophores, hydrogen cyanid, chitinase, cellulase, amylase and protease. Consortia of microbes were formed and used for inoculations. Experiments under nursery conditions revealed that inoculation with AMF and PGPR combined with compost significantly increased growth of date palms as compared to non-amended controls enabling farmers to decrease the time prior to field transplantation. On-farm trials performed in productive date palm groves have shown that PGPR inoculation with or without mixed-cropping with sorghum as nurse plants significantly increase fruit characteristics such as fruit flesh weight as well as fruit length and diameter for up to 14 % and leaf macronutrient concentrations for up to 200 % while in addition enhancing the mycorrhizal potential of the soil. Our integrated fertilization approach is developed in a participatory approach with key stakeholders in so-called innovation platforms, working at laboratory, on-station and on-farm scale to best tackle farmers’ needs in order to facilitate adoption and implementation.

The world’s growing population calls for sustainable food production within the limits of planetary boundaries. With respect to nitrogen and phosphorus cycling, the loss of biodiversity, land use change and the emission of greenhouse gases, four of these boundaries have been crossed already. Although fragmented knowledge of effects of different cropping systems on these focal planetary boundaries exists, there is a lack of comprehensive data from comparative cropping system experiments over the long run. Four decades back, farmers and researchers co-designed a system comparison experiment, located in Therwil (Basel-Land) Switzerland, comprising a seven-year ley crop rotation. Two conventional (with and without manure), and two organic systems (biodynamic and bioorganic) are compared. This experiment has served as a platform for national and international interdisciplinary research teams in the field of agronomy, soil quality, biodiversity, plant nutrition, food quality, sustainability assessment and modelling. Results of the 40years old DOK experiment show that organic systems, receiving distinctly less external inputs (chemical N, P, K and pesticides), maintained a higher biodiversity and produced lower greenhouse gas emissions. Yield averages over 40 years were 20% lower in organic systems across all crops. A nitrogen balance, including biological nitrogen fixation and stock changes of soil nitrogen, revealed a surplus for all manured systems, whereas the conventional system with sole mineral fertiliser was well balanced. Soil nitrogen stocks only increased slightly in the biodynamic system receiving composted manure. The biodynamic soil showed also increased soil organic carbon stocks, while the conventional soil receiving only mineral fertilizer acted as source for atmospheric CO2. A climate impact analyses encountering nitrous oxide, methane and soil organic matter changes resulted in lower CO2eq emissions in organic compared to the conventional systems, both area and yield scaled. Biodiversity and especially biomass of invertebrate fauna and plant seeds was enhanced in the organically managed systems. Our results demonstrate that organic cropping systems can contribute to a more sustainable production with respect to key planetary boundaries. To further improve system performance, yield gaps between organic and conventional systems need to be reduced by adapted cultivars, more effective organic plant protection and by closing urban and rural nutrient cycles.

Der weltweit einmalige Langzeitversuch „DOK“, der die drei Ackerbausysteme biologisch-dynamisch, organisch-biologisch und konventionell vergleicht, feiert Geburtstag. Paul Mäder, Hans-Martin-Krause und Andreas Fliessbach fassen die spannendsten Ergebnisse zu Boden, Artenvielfalt, Klimawirkung, Ertrag und Effizienz aus 40 Jahren DOK zusammen.

Der Klimawandel hat viele seiten. Der Ruf nach Anpassung durch Anbau hitze- und trockenheitsresistenter Pflanzen ist die eine. Der Blick auf die Verursacher ist eine andere. Die biodynamische Landwirtschaft ist besonders klimafreundlich.