IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i8p3378-d1631967.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of Three Decades of Conservation Management Systems on Carbon Management Index and Aggregate Stability

Author

Listed:
  • Murilo Veloso

    (Institut Polytechnique UniLaSalle, SFR NORVEGE FED 4277, AGHYLE Rouen UP 2018.C101, 76130 Mont-Saint-Aignan, France)

  • Fábio Farias Amorim

    (Pos-Graduation Program on Soil Science, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre 91540-000, RS, Brazil)

  • Jéssica Pereira de Souza

    (Pos-Graduation Program on Soil Science, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre 91540-000, RS, Brazil)

  • Cimélio Bayer

    (Pos-Graduation Program on Soil Science, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre 91540-000, RS, Brazil)

Abstract

The sustainability of agroecosystems depends on the maintenance of soil organic matter (SOM) and soil aggregate stability, which are key components of soil health. The long-term effects of conservation management systems, such as the adoption of no till (NT) associated with cover crops, on soil quality are still unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term effects of NT systems combined with cropping systems ecologically intensified by the presence of legumes on the carbon management index (CMI) and the state of soil aggregation, as sensitive tools to assess the quality of soil management systems. NT combined with autumn and spring legume cover crops increased the proportion of soil aggregates > 2 mm, resulting in higher weighted average diameters and higher aggregation index values in comparison to conventional tillage (CT), which favored the soil microaggregate proportion. The soil C content was favored by NT only in the surface layer, while the use of legume cover crops increased the C stock by 23% compared to the system without legume cover crops in the 0–20 cm layer. In the topsoil under NT, the stocks of particulate organic matter (POM) and mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM) were 100% and 37% greater than in CT, respectively. A greater CMI was observed under NT compared to CT in systems with no legumes (18%), with one legume (52%), and with two legumes (72%) as cover crops. These results highlight no till’s positive impact on soil health, further enhanced by the legume-based ecological intensification of cropping systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Murilo Veloso & Fábio Farias Amorim & Jéssica Pereira de Souza & Cimélio Bayer, 2025. "Impact of Three Decades of Conservation Management Systems on Carbon Management Index and Aggregate Stability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-15, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:8:p:3378-:d:1631967
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/8/3378/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/8/3378/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johannes Lehmann & Markus Kleber, 2015. "The contentious nature of soil organic matter," Nature, Nature, vol. 528(7580), pages 60-68, December.
    2. Valentina Quintarelli & Emanuele Radicetti & Enrica Allevato & Silvia Rita Stazi & Ghulam Haider & Zainul Abideen & Safia Bibi & Aftab Jamal & Roberto Mancinelli, 2022. "Cover Crops for Sustainable Cropping Systems: A Review," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-21, December.
    3. Edyta Hewelke & Lilla Mielnik & Jerzy Weber & Aneta Perzanowska & Elżbieta Jamroz & Dariusz Gozdowski & Paweł Szacki, 2024. "Chemical and Physical Aspects of Soil Health Resulting from Long-Term No-Till Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-16, November.
    4. Camila dos Santos Ferreira & Rose Luiza Moraes Tavares & Silvio Vasconcelos de Paiva Filho & Veridiana Cardozo Gonçalves Cantão & Gustavo André Simon & José Milton Alves & Hemython Luis Bandeira do Na, 2024. "Stock of Carbon and Soil Organic Fractions in No-Tillage and Crop–Livestock Integration Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-13, April.
    5. Samuel I. Haruna & Nsalambi V. Nkongolo, 2019. "Tillage, Cover Crop and Crop Rotation Effects on Selected Soil Chemical Properties," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-11, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Salih Demirkaya & Abdurrahman Ay & Coşkun Gülser & Rıdvan Kızılkaya, 2025. "Enhancing Clay Soil Productivity with Fresh and Aged Biochar: A Two-Year Field Study on Soil Quality and Wheat Yield," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-18, January.
    2. Elena A. Mikhailova & Garth R. Groshans & Christopher J. Post & Mark A. Schlautman & Gregory C. Post, 2019. "Valuation of Soil Organic Carbon Stocks in the Contiguous United States Based on the Avoided Social Cost of Carbon Emissions," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, August.
    3. Rolinski, Susanne & Prishchepov, Alexander V. & Guggenberger, Georg & Bischoff, Norbert & Kurganova, Irina & Schierhorn, Florian & Müller, Daniel & Müller, Christoph, 2021. "Dynamics of soil organic carbon in the steppes of Russia and Kazakhstan under past and future climate and land use," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 21(3).
    4. Meiting Li & Keqin Wang & Xiaoyi Ma & Mingsi Fan & Biyu Li & Yali Song, 2025. "Relationship Between Soil Aggregate Stability and Associated Carbon and Nitrogen Changes Under Different Ecological Construction Measures in the Karst Region of Southwest China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-23, January.
    5. Berazneva, Julia & McBride, Linden & Sheahan, Megan & Güereña, David, 2018. "Empirical assessment of subjective and objective soil fertility metrics in east Africa: Implications for researchers and policy makers," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 367-382.
    6. Héctor Iván Bedolla-Rivera & María de la Luz Xochilt Negrete-Rodríguez & Miriam del Rocío Medina-Herrera & Francisco Paúl Gámez-Vázquez & Dioselina Álvarez-Bernal & Midory Samaniego-Hernández & Alfred, 2020. "Development of a Soil Quality Index for Soils under Different Agricultural Management Conditions in the Central Lowlands of Mexico: Physicochemical, Biological and Ecophysiological Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-24, November.
    7. Jakub Bekier & Elżbieta Jamroz & Karolina Walenczak-Bekier & Martyna Uściła, 2023. "Soil Organic Matter Composition in Urban Soils: A Study of Wrocław Agglomeration, SW Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-12, January.
    8. Carine Naba & Hiroshi Ishidaira & Jun Magome & Kazuyoshi Souma, 2024. "Exploring the Potential of Soil and Water Conservation Measures for Climate Resilience in Burkina Faso," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-20, September.
    9. Mustapha El Janati & Nouraya Akkal-Corfini & Ahmed Bouaziz & Abdallah Oukarroum & Paul Robin & Ahmed Sabri & Mohamed Chikhaoui & Zahra Thomas, 2021. "Benefits of Circular Agriculture for Cropping Systems and Soil Fertility in Oases," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-17, April.
    10. Liudmila Tripolskaja & Asta Kazlauskaite-Jadzevice & Eugenija Baksiene & Almantas Razukas, 2022. "Changes in Organic Carbon in Mineral Topsoil of a Formerly Cultivated Arenosol under Different Land Uses in Lithuania," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-19, March.
    11. Yongkang Wang & Junfeng Dai & Fan Jiang & Zupeng Wan & Shuaipu Zhang, 2025. "Coupled Effects of Water Depth, Vegetation, and Soil Properties on Soil Organic Carbon Components in the Huixian Wetland of the Li River Basin," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-20, March.
    12. Samuel I. Haruna & Nsalambi V. Nkongolo, 2020. "Influence of Cover Crop, Tillage, and Crop Rotation Management on Soil Nutrients," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-14, June.
    13. José Manuel Rato Nunes & António Bonito & Luis Loures & José Gama & Antonio López-Piñeiro & David Peña & Ángel Albarrán, 2017. "Effects of the European Union Agricultural and Environmental Policies in the Sustainability of Most Common Mediterranean Soils," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-16, August.
    14. Jianghua Tang & Lili Su & Yanfei Fang & Chen Wang & Linyi Meng & Jiayong Wang & Junyao Zhang & Wenxiu Xu, 2023. "Moderate Nitrogen Reduction Increases Nitrogen Use Efficiency and Positively Affects Microbial Communities in Agricultural Soils," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-24, March.
    15. Guillermo Martínez Pastur & Marie-Claire Aravena Acuña & Jimena E. Chaves & Juan M. Cellini & Eduarda M. O. Silveira & Julián Rodriguez-Souilla & Axel von Müller & Ludmila La Manna & María V. Lencinas, 2023. "Nitrogenous and Phosphorus Soil Contents in Tierra del Fuego Forests: Relationships with Soil Organic Carbon, Climate, Vegetation and Landscape Metrics," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-18, April.
    16. Dimitrios Triantakonstantis & Andreas Karakostas, 2025. "Soil Organic Carbon Monitoring and Modelling via Machine Learning Methods Using Soil and Remote Sensing Data," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-17, April.
    17. He, Qinsi & Liu, De Li & Wang, Bin & Li, Linchao & Cowie, Annette & Simmons, Aaron & Zhou, Hongxu & Tian, Qi & Li, Sien & Li, Yi & Liu, Ke & Yan, Haoliang & Harrison, Matthew Tom & Feng, Puyu & Waters, 2022. "Identifying effective agricultural management practices for climate change adaptation and mitigation: A win-win strategy in South-Eastern Australia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    18. Steffen Schlüter & Frederic Leuther & Lukas Albrecht & Carmen Hoeschen & Rüdiger Kilian & Ronny Surey & Robert Mikutta & Klaus Kaiser & Carsten W. Mueller & Hans-Jörg Vogel, 2022. "Microscale carbon distribution around pores and particulate organic matter varies with soil moisture regime," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    19. Chao Chen & Yinglin Liang & Zhilong Chen & Changwu Zou & Zongbo Shi, 2024. "Black Carbon in Climate Studies: A Bibliometric Analysis of Research Trends and Topics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-20, October.
    20. Yue Zhang & Guihua Liu & Zhixing Ma & Xin Deng & Jiahao Song & Dingde Xu, 2022. "The Influence of Land Attachment on Land Abandonment from the Perspective of Generational Difference: Evidence from Sichuan Province, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-15, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:8:p:3378-:d:1631967. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.