EGU2020-13415, updated on 12 Jun 2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-13415
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

A comparison between vegetable intercropping systems and monocultures in greenhouse gas emissions under organic management

Virginia Sánchez-Navarro, Mariano Marcos-Pérez, and Raúl Zornoza
Virginia Sánchez-Navarro et al.
  • Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Departamento de Ingeniería Agronómica, Cartagena, Spain (virginia.sanchez@upct.es)

Legume crops have been proposed as a way of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions because both, their rhizosphere behaviour and their ability to fix atmospheric N reducing the need of external N fertilizer. Moreover, the establishment of organic agriculture has been proposed as a sustainable strategy to enhance the delivery of ecosystem services, including mitigation of climate change by decreases in GHG emissions and increases in soil C sequestration. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of the association between cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) and melon (Cucumis melo L.) growing in different intercropping patterns on soil CO2 and N2O emissions compared to cowpea and melon monocultures under organic management as a possible strategy for climate change mitigation. Soil CO2 and N2O emissions were weekly measured in melon and cowpea rows using the dynamic chamber method during one cropping cycle in 2019. Results indicated that melon growing as monoculture was related to increases in O cumulative emissions (0.431 g m-2) compared to the average of the rest of treatments (0.036 g m-2). Cowpea growing as monoculture was related to decreases in CO2 cumulative emissions (390 g m-2) compared with the other treatments (512 g m-2 average). However, N2O and CO2 emission patterns did not directly follow soil moisture patterns in the experimental period, with no significant correlations. Finally there were no significant differences among intercropping treatments with regard to NO2 and CO2 emissions. Further measurements are needed to monitor the evolution of GHG emissions under these cropping systems and confirm the trend observed.

How to cite: Sánchez-Navarro, V., Marcos-Pérez, M., and Zornoza, R.: A comparison between vegetable intercropping systems and monocultures in greenhouse gas emissions under organic management, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-13415, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-13415, 2020

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