Growing Cover Crops to Improve Biomass Accumulation and Carbon Sequestration: A Phytotron Study

Cover crop system has shown a potential approach to improving carbon sequestration and environmental quality. Six of each winter and summer cover crops were subsequently grown in two soils, Krome gravelly loam soil (KGL), and Quincy fine sandy soil (QFS), in phytotrons at 3 temperatures (10/20, 15/25, 25/30oC for winter/summer cover crops) to investigate their contributions for carbon (C) sequestration. Among winter cover crops, the highest and the lowest amounts of C accumulated were by bellbean (Vicia faba L.), 597 g/m2 and white clover (Trifolium repens), 149 g/m2, respectively, in the QFS soil. Among summer cover crops, sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea L.) accumulated the largest quantity of C (481 g/m2), while that by castorbean (Ricinus communis) was 102 g/m2 at 30oC in the KGL soil. The mean net C remained in the residues following the 127 d decomposition were 187 g/m2 of C (73% of the total) and 91 g/m2 (52% of the total) for the winter and summer cover crops, respectively. Following a whole cycle of winter and summer cover crops grown, the mean soil organic C (SOC) increased by 13.8 and 39.1% in the KGL and QFS soil, respectively, compared to the respective soils before. The results suggest that triticale, ryegrass, and bellbean are the promising winter cover crops in the QFS soil, while sunn hemp, velvetbean (Mucuna pruriens), and sorghum sudangrass (Sorghum bicolor ×S. bicolor) are recommended summer cover crops for both soils under favorable temperatures.

Validation of Growth and Nutrient Uptake Models for Tomato on a Gravelly South Florida Soil Under Greenhouse Conditions

The Soil and Water Assessment Tool(SWAT) has been widely used throughout the world to model crop growth and nutrient uptake in various types of soils.A greenhouse experiment was performed to validate the process equations embedded in SWAT for describing the growth and nutrient uptake of tomatoes in south Florida.The scaled growth curve of greenhouse-grown tomatoes was in close agreement with the theoretical model for field conditions,with the scaling factors being the maximum canopy height and the potential heat units.Similarly,the scaled leaf area index(LAI) growth curve and the scaled root depth curve for greenhousegrown tomatoes agreed with the SWAT functions,with the scaling factors being the maximum LAI and maximum root depth.The greenhouse experiment confirmed that the growth of biomass is a linear function of the intercepted photosynthetically active radiation.The fractions of nutrients in the plant biomass under greenhouse conditions were found to be on the order of 60% of those fractions observed in the field.Values of the initial P distribution(0.2 mg kg -1),initial ratio of mineral stable P to mineral active P(50:1),and initial ratio of humic N to humic P(2.4:1) were determined from soil measurements and can be used for field simulations.The conventional saturation-excess model for soil-water percolation was used to predict the movement of water in the top 10 cm of the greenhouse containers and the results agreed well with measurements.