Cover Crops and Soil Ecosystem Services - (Asa, Cssa, and Sssa Books) by Humberto Blanco (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Cover crops are used to shield and enrich soil between crop harvests, rather than be planted for financial gain. Cover crops, such as clovers, alfalfa, and rye, are usually planted between two harvested (cash) crops, or between crop production periods, to perform multiple functions, such as managing soil quality, preventing soil erosion, increasing soil fertility, and weed, pest, and disease management. With their ability to boost yields, improve soil health, and provide feed for grazing animals, farmers can benefit from both financial savings and gains by using cover crops"--

Book Synopsis

Cover Crops and Soil Ecosystem Services

A comprehensive resource on cover crops and their role in soil ecosystems

Cover crops are a reemerging strategy to improve and maintain the services that soils provide. They can have an enormous affect on agricultural outcomes, preventing soil erosion, restoring vital soil nutrients, sequestering C from the atmosphere, and more. The successful management and use of cover crops is therefore critical to ensure soil ecosystem services are maintained or improved not only to meet our demands for food, fuel, fiber, and feed but also to reduce pollution and improve the soil.

Cover Crops and Soil Ecosystem Services provides a heavily researched and highly readable introduction to cover crops and their role in soil ecosystems. It ranges from a detailed discussion of cover crop biomass production to a thorough treatment of soil ecosystems and their vulnerabilities. The result is an essential guide to a critical area of agricultural science.

Cover Crops and Soil Ecosystem Services readers will also find:

• Detailed treatment of cover crop biomass production, soil erosion, greenhouse gas fluxes, nitrate leaching, soil C sequestration, and more
• Discussion of emerging issues, including extreme weather events and the economics of cover crop farming
• Wide-ranging summaries of interdisciplinary soil and cover crop research

Cover Crops and Soil Ecosystem Services is a useful reference for students and researchers at all levels of study relating to cover crop agriculture.

From the Back Cover

A comprehensive resource on cover crops and their role in soil ecosystems

Cover crops are a reemerging strategy to improve and maintain the services that soils provide. They can have an enormous effect on agricultural outcomes, preventing soil erosion, restoring vital soil nutrients, sequestering C from the atmosphere, and more. The successful management and use of cover crops is therefore critical to ensure soil ecosystem services are maintained or improved not only to meet our demands for food, fuel, fiber, and feed but also to reduce pollution and improve the soil.

Cover Crops and Soil Ecosystem Services provides a heavily researched and highly readable introduction to cover crops and their role in soil ecosystems. It ranges from a detailed discussion of cover crop biomass production to a thorough treatment of soil ecosystems and their vulnerabilities. The result is an essential guide to a critical area of agricultural science.

Cover Crops and Soil Ecosystem Services readers will also find:

• Detailed treatment of cover crop biomass production, soil erosion, greenhouse gas fluxes, nitrate leaching, soil C sequestration, and more
• Discussion of emerging issues, including extreme weather events and the economics of cover crop farming
• Wide-ranging summaries of interdisciplinary soil and cover crop research

Cover Crops and Soil Ecosystem Services is a useful reference for students and researchers at all levels of study relating to cover crop agriculture.

About the Author

Humberto Blanco is Professor of Soil Management and Applied Soil Physics in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA.