Melon/cowpea intercropping pattern influenced the N and C soil cycling and the abundance of soil rare bacterial taxa.

The high use of pesticides, herbicides, and unsustainable farming practices resulted in losses of soil quality. Sustainable farming practices such as intercropping could be a good alternative to traditional monocrop, especially using legumes such as cowpea (). In this study, different melon and cowpea intercropping patterns (melon mixed with cowpea in the same row (MC1); alternating one melon row and one cowpea row (MC2); alternating two melon rows and one cowpea row (MC3)) were assayed to study the intercropping effect on soil bacterial community through 16S rRNA region in a 3-year experiment.

Perennial alley cropping contributes to decrease soil CO and NO emissions and increase soil carbon sequestration in a Mediterranean almond orchard.

The implementation of alley cropping in orchards can be a sustainable strategy to increase farm productivity by crop diversification and contribute to climate change mitigation. In this research, we evaluated the short-term effect of alley cropping with reduced tillage on soil CO and NO emissions and soil total organic carbon (TOC) in an almond orchard under Mediterranean rainfed conditions. We compared an almond monoculture with tillage in all plot surface (MC) with almond crop with reduced tillage and growth of Capparis spinosa (D1) and almond crop with reduced tillage and growth of Thymus hyemalis (D2).

Greenhouse gas emissions and soil organic matter dynamics in woody crop orchards with different irrigation regimes.

Water scarcity in arid, semiarid and dry regions is a limiting factor for the development of sustainable agriculture. As a consequence, the adoption of new strategies such as regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) to reduce water and energy consumption will be essential. Decreases in irrigation water content may also have positive effects on soil C cycle.