SUMMARY:
“Understanding ICL management effects on the status and trajectory of SOC and TN stocks is important to the design and deployment of agricultural practices that maintain key soil functions and contribute to agricultural sustainability. However, quantification of SOC and TN stocks in ICL systems requires a commitment to decadal-scale research under semiarid conditions, underscoring the importance of long-term experiments. Fifteen years of residue treatment effects were evaluated for their effect on SOC and TN stocks at select depths and associated soil masses in a long- term study in the northern Great Plains of North America. Results found grazed crop residue and crop residue retained without grazing had greater SOC and TN in near- surface depths than where crop residue had been mechanically removed. Over time, SOC increased significantly where crop residue was grazed or not removed by mechanical means. Under the semiarid conditions of this study, changes in SOC and TN underscored the importance of residue retention and livestock grazing in ICL systems.”