A meta-analysis of global cropland soil carbon changes due to cover cropping

Including cover crops within agricultural rotations may increase soil organic carbon (SOC). However, contradictory findings generated by on-site experiments make it necessary to perform a comprehensive assessment of interactions between cover crops, environmental and management factors, and changes in SOC. In this study, we collected data from studies that compared agricultural production with and without cover crops, and then analyzed those data using meta-analysis and regression. Our results showed that including cover crops into rotations significantly increased SOC, with an overall mean change of 15.5% (95% confidence interval of 13.8%–17.3%). Whereas medium-textured soils had highest SOC stocks (overall means of 39 Mg ha−1 with and 37 Mg ha−1 without cover crops), fine-textured soils showed the greatest increase in SOC after the inclusion of cover crops (mean change of 39.5%). Coarse-textured (11.4%) and medium-textured soils (10.3%) had comparatively smaller changes in SOC, while soils in temperate climates had greater changes (18.7%) than those in tropical climates (7.2%). Cover crop mixtures resulted in greater increases in SOC compared to mono-species cover crops, and using legumes caused greater SOC increases than grass species. Cover crop biomass positively affected SOC changes while carbon:nitrogen ratio of cover crop biomass was negatively correlated with SOC changes. Cover cropping was associated with significant SOC increases in shallow soils (≤30 cm), but not in subsurface soils (>30 cm). The regression analysis revealed that SOC changes from cover cropping correlated with improvements in soil quality, specifically decreased runoff and erosion and increased mineralizable carbon, mineralizable nitrogen, and soil nitrogen. Soil carbon change was also affected by annual temperature, number of years after start of cover crop usage, latitude, and initial SOC concentrations. Finally, the mean rate of carbon sequestration from cover cropping across all studies was 0.56 Mg ha−1 yr−1. If 15% of current global cropland were to adopt cover crops, this value would translate to 0.16 ± 0.06 Pg of carbon sequestered per year, which is ~1–2% of current fossil fuels emissions. Altogether, these results indicated that the inclusion of cover crops into agricultural rotations can enhance soil carbon concentrations, improve many soil quality parameters, and serve as a potential sink for atmosphere CO2.