Diversifying cropping sequence reduces nitrogen leaching risks

Overuse of chemical fertiliser in cereal cropping systems has resulted in severe degradation of air and water quality. Diversifying cropping sequence with legumes provides a natural source of nitrogen (N), but also increases N leaching risks after their growing period. Here, we hypothesize that legumes and other break crops, i.e., crops grown to diversify the cropping sequence, reduce N leaching at the rotation scale due to their contribution to increasing nutrient use efficiency and crop N recovery of the following cereal crops. In two 4-year experiments conducted in northern France, we monitored agronomic performance and the changes in the soil mineral N content at field scale in six preceding crop-current crop combinations including winter wheat (Triticum aestivum), pea (Pisum sativum L.) and oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.). We quantified N leaching after each crop as a function of the preceding crop with a water-fluxes model based on soil mineral N content, climate data and soil characteristics. We then simulated N leaching at the rotation scale, for 20 years of climate conditions and various cropping management systems. We show that growing pea or oilseed rape reduced soil mineral N content at harvest of the following cereals (up to mean values of −28 and −19 kg N ha−1 respectively), and N leaching risks during winter of the following cereals compared to the wheat-wheat cropping sequence. Although N leaching was higher during the winter after pea was cultivated, the cumulative losses over four experimental years of the pea cropping sequences were not significantly higher than the no-break cropping sequences. Over the 20 climate years, sequences including pea, oilseed rape, volunteers or catch crops reduced simulated N leaching by up to 40 % compared to wheat monoculture. Our study confirms that N leaching not only depends on the current crop but is also affected by the preceding crop. A large potential reduction in nitrogen leaching could be achieved in many intensive cereal-growing regions with very limited cropping sequence diversity.