Articles
Agroecological strategies to enhance resilience in Mediterranean organic agriculture: evidence from the MITIORG long-term experiment
Article number
1427_26
Pages
188 – 198
Language
English
Abstract
Agroecological practices tailored to site-specific conditions are crucial to promote both climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The effectiveness of these practices in addressing climate change effects was assessed in a long-term experiment on organic horticultural crops, having a soil hydraulic arrangement in ridges and strips, incorporating cover crops with different management options within cash crop rotations, and testing different organic amendments.
Environmental sustainability was evaluated by converting crop yield and biomass production into energy outputs and carbon storage equivalents within diversified horticultural systems.
The results were analyzed considering the site-specific meteorological data across over 10 horticultural cropping cycles, from autumn-winter 2014-15 to autumn-winter 2020-21. During extreme climate events, the Ridge and Strips system 1 (RS1), characterized by cover crops as living mulch on ridges and break crops in the strips, both with no-till termination, showed a 18% increase in energy output and carbon storage, as compared to the second system (RS2) with green manured cover crops on ridges and strips.
Furthermore, RS3, the system without cover crops, showed a decrease of approximately 5 and 9% in energy output and carbon storage, respectively, compared to the average of RS1 and RS2. Our findings highlight the effectiveness of diversified agroecological systems in enhancing resilience during extreme weather events, saving at least a part of crop production under Mediterranean conditions.
The effectiveness of these practices in addressing climate change effects was assessed in a long-term experiment on organic horticultural crops, having a soil hydraulic arrangement in ridges and strips, incorporating cover crops with different management options within cash crop rotations, and testing different organic amendments.
Environmental sustainability was evaluated by converting crop yield and biomass production into energy outputs and carbon storage equivalents within diversified horticultural systems.
The results were analyzed considering the site-specific meteorological data across over 10 horticultural cropping cycles, from autumn-winter 2014-15 to autumn-winter 2020-21. During extreme climate events, the Ridge and Strips system 1 (RS1), characterized by cover crops as living mulch on ridges and break crops in the strips, both with no-till termination, showed a 18% increase in energy output and carbon storage, as compared to the second system (RS2) with green manured cover crops on ridges and strips.
Furthermore, RS3, the system without cover crops, showed a decrease of approximately 5 and 9% in energy output and carbon storage, respectively, compared to the average of RS1 and RS2. Our findings highlight the effectiveness of diversified agroecological systems in enhancing resilience during extreme weather events, saving at least a part of crop production under Mediterranean conditions.
Publication
Authors
M. Diacono, A. Persiani, V. Alfano, A. Fiore, R. Scazzarriello, F. Montemurro
Keywords
climate change, cover crops, green manure, living mulch and roller crimper, energy output and carbon storage
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