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8 April 2020 Soil aggregate stability increased with a self-regenerating legume cover crop in low-nitrogen, no-till agroecosystems of Saskatchewan, Canada
April Stainsby, William E. May, Guy P. Lafond, Martin H. Entz
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Abstract

Black medic (Medicago lupulina L.) is a self-regenerating cover crop which was tested for its ability to improve soil physical properties. Soil aggregate stability was assessed in plots that included a black medic cover crop in a no-till grain rotation, which was fertilized with two levels of nitrogen (N), for 15 yr. In the wheat phase of the rotation, the medic cover crop increased mean weight diameter by 21% in the reduced N fertilizer treatment but not in the recommended N treatment. Generally, the addition of medic reduced the proportion of small aggregates and increased the proportion of large aggregates. This pattern was stronger in reduced N compared with recommended N fertilizer levels. This study provided evidence for medic to increase aggregate stability under low external N input grain production.

© Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada 2020. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
April Stainsby, William E. May, Guy P. Lafond, and Martin H. Entz "Soil aggregate stability increased with a self-regenerating legume cover crop in low-nitrogen, no-till agroecosystems of Saskatchewan, Canada," Canadian Journal of Soil Science 100(3), 314-318, (8 April 2020). https://doi.org/10.1139/cjss-2019-0110
Received: 21 August 2019; Accepted: 8 March 2020; Published: 8 April 2020
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KEYWORDS
conservation agriculture
legume cover crops
Nitrogen management
soil health
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