Hundreds of millions of smallholders in emerging countries substantially overuse nitrogen
(N) fertilizers, driving local environmental pollution and global climate change. Despite local …

Forage crops have the potential to serve multiple functions, providing an ecological
framework to sustainably intensify food production, ie, ecological intensification. We review …

CONTEXT Wheat-maize (WM) double cropping is the dominant land use system in the North
China Plain (NCP). This system has high grain output but suffers from high fertilizer input …

Soil fertility in organic agriculture relies on microbial cycling of nutrient inputs from legume
cover crops and animal manure. However, large quantities of labile carbon (C) and nitrogen …

Context Green manure application in agricultural soil is known to enhance nitrogen use
efficiency and crop yield. However, limited research exists on the potential effects of green …

Context or problem The sustainability of traditional maize-wheat (MW) double cropping in
the North China Plain (NCP) is threatened by excessive nitrogen (N) input and surplus …

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), as symbionts of the plant root system, play a pivotal
ecological role in soil nutrient dynamics. However, the mechanisms by which AMF mediates …

Reducing the intensity and frequency of tillage in organic grain production systems is likely
to produce several agronomic, economic, and environmental tradeoffs. We evaluated four …