The role of cover crops in optimising nutrient cycles

Using cover crops to improve nutrient cycling is essential to develop sustainable cropping systems. This chapter provides an overview of how cover crops optimize macronutrient cycling, in terms of nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus, by summarising four mechanisms. These four mechanisms include biologically fixing atmospheric nitrogen, reducing nutrient losses from agroecosystems, improving soil health to cycle nutrients, and supplying nutrients to subsequent crops. These effects occur at various temporal scales from months to the following growing season to long-term (i.e., ≥10 years). Moreover, a case study explores the interaction effect of cover crops in diverse crop rotations with and without nitrification and urease inhibitors (NUI) on year-round nitrous oxide emissions.