Browsing by Author "Vico, Giulia"

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    Crop rotational diversity can mitigate climate-induced grain yield losses
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2024) Costa, Alessio ; Bommarco, Riccardo; Smith, Monique E.; Bowles, Timothy; Gaudin, Amélie C. M.; Christine A. Watson,; Alarcón, Remedios; Berti, Antonio; Blecharczyk, Andrzej; Calderon, Francisco J.; Culman, Steve; Deen, William; Drury, Craig F.; Garcia y Garcia, Axel; García- Díaz, Andrés; Hernández Plaza, Eva; Jończyk, Krzysztof; Jäck, Ortrud; Navarrete Martínez, Luis; Montemurro, Francesco; Morari, Francesco; Onofri, Andrea; Osborne, Shannon L.; Tenorio-Pasamón, José Luis; Sandström, Boël; Santín-Montanyá, Inés; Sawińska, Zuzanna; Schmer,Marty R.; Stalenga, Jarosław; Strock, Jeffrey; Tei, Francesco|; Topp, Cairistiona F. E.; Ventrella, Domenico V; Walker, Robin L.; Vico, Giulia
    Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) supports the sustainability of crop production and food security, and benefiting soil carbon storage. Despite the critical importance of microorganisms in the carbon cycle, systematic investigations on the influence of CSA on soil microbial necromass carbon and its driving factors are still limited. We evaluated 472 observations from 73 peer- reviewed articles to show that, compared to conventional practice, CSA generally increased soil microbial necromass carbon concentrations by 18.24%. These benefits to soil microbial necromass carbon, as as-sessed by amino sugar biomarkers, are complex and influenced by a variety of soil, climatic, spatial, and biological factors. Changes in living microbial biomass are the most significant predictor of total, fungal, and bacterial necromass carbon affected by CSA; in 61.9%–67.3% of paired observations, the CSA measures simultaneously increased living microbial biomass and microbial necromass carbon. Land restora-tion and nutrient management therein largely promoted microbial necromass carbon storage, while cover crop has a minor effect. Additionally, the effects were directly influenced by elevation and mean annual temperature, and indirectly by soil texture and initial organic carbon content. In the optimal scenario, the potential global carbon accrual rate of CSA through microbial necromass is approximately 980 Mt C year−1, assuming organic amendment is included following conservation tillage and appropri-ate land restoration. In conclusion, our study suggests that increasing soil microbial necromass carbon through CSA provides a vital way of mitigating carbon loss. This emphasizes the invisible yet significant influence of soil microbial anabolic activity on global carbon dynamics.
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    Functionally rich crop rotations increase calorie and macronutrient outputs across Europe
    (Springer Nature, 2026) Vico, Giulia; Costa, Alessio; Smith, Monique E.; Bowles, Timothy; Gaudin, Amélie C. M.; Watson, Christine A.; Baldoni, Guido; Berti, Antonio; Blecharczyk, Andrzej; Jończyk, Krzysztof; Mazzon, Martina; Marzadori, Claudio; Morari, Francesco; Negri, Lorenzo; Onofri, Andrea; Pasamón, José Luis Tenorio; Sandström, Boël; Santín-Montanyá, Inés; Sawińska, Zuzanna; Stalenga, Jarosław; Tei, Francesco; Topp, Cairistiona F. E.; Walker, Robin L.; Bommarco, Riccardo
    Increased crop diversity in cereal-dominated rotations can enhance crop protection, nutrient use efficiency and climate change adaptation. Nevertheless, it is argued that replacing cereals in rotations diminishes food production, threatening food security. Here we compared outputs of calories and macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats) for human consumption from cereal monocultures, cereal-only rotations and rotations including two or three functionally distinct crop types (cereals plus root and oil crops, legumes or ley) in 16 long-term experiments across Europe. Rotations with three functional types produced more calories and macronutrients than cereal monocultures and cereal-only rotations with forage crops used to produce milk. Carbohydrate gains depended on growing conditions and crop choice. Advantages increased over time but were lost with forage crops used for beef or biofuel. Functionally rich rotations provided macronutrient proportions closer to recommended human diets. Our analysis shows no trade-off between functionally rich rotations and food production or agricultural land expansion.