Conservation Agriculture: SSSAJ Special Section, 2021
The September/October 2021 edition of the Soil Science Society of America Journal (SSSAJ) features a special section titled “The Role of Conservation Agricultural Practices on Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Enhancing C Sequestration“.
The section brings together studies from across the globe and was edited by Craig Drury (Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Ontario Canada), Chuck Rice (Kansas State University, Kansas USA) and Jane Johnson (United States Department of Agriculture, Minnesota, USA). The editors had the idea for a SSSAJ special section in 2019 at the Global Research Alliance’s (GRA) meeting of the Croplands Research Group and implementation has been led by the Conservation Agriculture Network.
Ten peer-reviewed papers are published in the special section. They include seven field studies, two modeling studies (using field data), and one meta-analysis paper. The conservation agriculture (CA) practices covered in these manuscripts include conservation tillage, crop rotations, cover crops, and residue management. Several studies include a combination of CA practices (e.g., two papers included both tillage and residue management treatments). The research represents field sites in four countries (United States, Canada, Argentina, and Denmark) across three continents (North and South America and Europe). The meta-analysis study uses published data from 121 field sites in 19 countries across six continents. Collectively, these articles provide examples of CA benefits related to reducing N2O emissions and enhancing C sequestration in soils.