Conservation agriculture improves soil health and sustains crop yields after long-term warming

12 páginas.- 5 figuras.- 89 referencias.- The online version contains Supplementary Material available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53169-6

Climate warming threatens global food security by exacerbating pressures on degraded soils under intensive crop production. Conservation agriculture is promoted as a sustainable solution that improves soil health and sustains crop yields in a changing climate, but these benefits may be affected by long-term warming. Here, we investigate the effects of conservation agriculture compared to conventional agriculture on 17 soil properties, microbial diversity and crop yields, during eight-years’ experimental warming. An overall positive effect of warming on soil health over time under conservation agriculture is characterized by linear increases in soil organic carbon and microbial biomass carbon. Warming-triggered shifts in microbial biomass carbon and fungal diversity (saprogen richness) are directly linked to a 9.3% increase in wheat yields over eight years, but only under conservation agriculture. Overall, conservation agriculture results in an average 21% increase in soil health and supports similar levels of crop production after long-term warming compared to conventional agriculture. Our work provides insights into the potential benefits of conservation agriculture for long-term sustainable food production because improved soil health improves resilience to the effects of climate warming.

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. U23A20158, Z.L.C., and 32071629, J.T.), National Key R&D Program of China (2023YFD1901500, J.T.), 2115 Talent Development Program of China Agricultural University and Beijing Advanced Disciplines, F.S.Z., Z.L.C., J.B.Z., J.T., and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2022M71339, J.L.T.).

Peer reviewed