Greenhouse Gas

Monitoring of a Cover
Crop Field
Veronica Suarez Romero,

Sarah Light, Amber Vinchesi, Michelle

Leinfeilder, Brenna Aegerter, William
Horwath
What is the project about?
• We planted legume cover crops in 2 different fields: San
Joaquín County and Sutter County.
• San Joaquín: summer cover crop (cowpea)
• Sutter County: winter cover crop (vetch)
• We analyzed and interpreted changes in soil properties and
greenhouse gas emissions from the field for 2.5 years.
• Our goal was to implement practices that improve overall
soil health, increase soil C and reduce GHG.
Site description
San Joaquin Site:
• Treatments: no cover crop (No CC)
Cover crop (CC) 50 lbs/ac
• 3 replicates per treatment
• Cover crop planted in summer and irrigated
Furrow (2018)
Sprinkler irrigation (2019 & 2020)
Sutter Site:
• Treatments: Control: No cover crop
T1: Low seed rate Cover crop
T2: High seed rate Cover crop
• 3 replicates per treatment
• Cover crop planted in winter and Furrow
irrigated all years
What was done?

Crops planted in San Joaquín:

Project started on Fall 2018 Forage triticale
and ended August 2020

Crops planted in Sutter:

We measured GHG gases and
Tomatoes (2018, 2019)
soil parameters for 2.5 years.
Rice (2020)
Soil parameters monitored
Monthly sampling
 At 0” to 6” (surface samples)
Analysis:
• Greenhouse gas (CO2, CH4, N2O)
• Ammonium ()
• Nitrate ()
• Moisture
• Temperature

Annual sampling
At different depths from
0” to 36”
Analysis: • Wet aggregate
• bulk density stability
• pH • EC (salinity)
• Total C&N • POXC (active carbon)
Results in
San
Joaquin
County
Why is CO2 produced?
• Microbes in the soil
require C and N to survive
• Plant residues and root
exudates provide food for
the microbes
• As residues decompose
nutrients are released for
plant uptake and CO2 is
produced

Caley et al. (2019) https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/publications/crops/soil-organic-matter-does-matter/sf1942.pdf

CO2 Emissions for San Joaquin Site

• CO2 is produced by microbial activity

and plant roots.
• Presence of cover crops increase CO2
emissions at San Joaquin
• Higher emissions during summer
when cover crops are irrigated and
the control is dry fallow.
• Microbial activity is responsible of
nutrient cycling.
N2O Emissions for San Joaquin Site
• N2O is 300 more potent GHG than CO2
(reducing it has impacts on global
warming)
• It depletes the ozone layer in the
atmosphere
• It’s also a leak of N from the soil
• Overall, we observed that Cover crops
did not had a significant effect in N2O
emissions for the whole year.
N2O Emissions for San Joaquin Site
• If we consider seasons: we found only
2 dates where CC emitted more N2O
than the fallow
• 1 day during winter where the control
emitted more than the cc.
• Microbial activity increases with
moisture and denitrification
(production N2O) happens at
anaerobic conditions (waterlogged)
CH4 Emissions for San Joaquin Site
• Data was hard to obtain with
chamber method we used.
• We observed consumption and
emission of CH4
• More research is needed to address
the question of the impact of cc in
methane emissions
Results in Sutter
County
CO2 Emissions for Sutter Site

• We found no significant treatment

effect over 3 the years
• High emissions during winter due to
increase moisture (observed even in
control)
CO2 Emissions for Sutter Site
• Only 3 days where the cover
crops influenced the emissions
• T2 (High rate of cc) emitted more
CO2 -> Higher microbial activity
• T1 (low rate) = Control
N2O Emissions for Sutter Site
• We found that cover crops don’t
increase significantly the emission of
N2O
• Only 2 dates where T2 (High rate)
emitted more than the other
treatments.
• Interesting: T1 (low rate) emitted less
than the control (different microbial
community)
N2O Emissions for Sutter Site
• We found one day where N2O is being
consumed and T2 (high rate)
consumes more N2O
• Future research should focus on
understanding how to promote these
days
Other benefits from
Cover crops

• Water infiltration increased in the cover

crop treatments
• Compaction was reduced in T1 plots
• Increased aggregation in cover crop
plots
• Active C (POXC) increases for all the
treatments because of poultry manure
incorporation (Higher increase in T2)
Nitrate in soil

• We observed N mineralization from the

cover crop residue
• Nitrate was released in soil for the CC
treatments
• Higher nitrate content was observed in
the T2 > T1 > Control
Implications for Soil Health
• Cover crops didn’t increase significantly the overall GHG
emissions
• We observed better water infiltration, less soil compaction
in cover crop treatments (short-term benefits)
• Cover crops supplied N that can be used by cash crop
(short-term benefit )
• Observed increase in active C (early indicator of long-term
C accumulation)
• There is an ideal rate of cover crop seeding to maximize
benefits
 This project was supported by the California Climate
Acknowledgements Investments program and the California Department of Food
and Agriculture Healthy Soils Program.
Please send your comments or questions to
vpsuarez@ucdavis.edu

Thanks for your attention!