Sustainable agriculture creates management trade-offs, not conflicts, between crop productivity and soil carbon storage goals.

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dc.creatorEncarnation, David G
dc.creatorPowell, Robert S
dc.creatorSmith, Pete
dc.creatorPellegrini, Adam FA
dc.date2026-05-06T00:32:16Z
dc.date2026-02-10
dc.date.accessioned2026-08-03T02:50:14Z
dc.descriptionAccelerating climate change and increasing food insecurity necessitates agricultural management that simultaneously mitigates climate change and increases food production. We evaluated when and where sustainable agriculture creates win-wins or trade-offs between food production and soil carbon sequestration across four crop types and four broad management changes. We conducted a global meta-analysis of 2975 paired yield and topsoil carbon (and 498 subsoil) observations from 510 publications to assess the simultaneous impacts of reduced tillage, cover cropping, complex crop rotations, and crop residue retention on maize, wheat, rice, and soybean yields and soil organic carbon stocks. Strong coupling between crop yield and soil carbon gains occurred in only 18.1% of observations, but significant gains in either outcome occurred in 55.6%. Environmental conditions mattered across all practices and crop types: win-wins were most likely in marginal agricultural lands characterized by warmer temperatures, water limitation, and low nitrogen application rates - conditions that represent a substantial proportion of global agricultural land area. By considering the interactions between crop types and multiple practices thought to bolster soil carbon stocks and crop yields, we conclude that the optimal practice for maximizing the yield response is not always the same as the optimal practice for maximizing the soil carbon response. This generates management trade-offs not via declines in either yields or soil carbon, but rather in determining the optimal practice selection for a given crop in a given area.
dc.formatPrint-Electronic
dc.formatapplication/pdf
dc.formatapplication/msword
dc.identifier0048-9697
dc.identifierhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/402149
dc.identifier1879-1026
dc.identifier.urihttps://repo.dare.co.zw/handle/123456789/169531
dc.languageeng
dc.publisherElsevier
dc.publisherDepartment of Plant Sciences Student
dc.publisherhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2026.181438
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International
dc.rightshttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectClimate change
dc.subjectFood security
dc.subjectSequestration
dc.subjectSoil carbon
dc.subjectSustainable agriculture
dc.subjectYields
dc.subjectmeta-analysis
dc.subjectAgriculture
dc.subjectSoil
dc.subjectCarbon Sequestration
dc.subjectCrops, Agricultural
dc.subjectClimate Change
dc.subjectCarbon
dc.subjectConservation of Natural Resources
dc.titleSustainable agriculture creates management trade-offs, not conflicts, between crop productivity and soil carbon storage goals.
dc.typeArticle

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