First-of-kind study suggests cover crop mixtures increase agroecosystem services

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Planting a multi-species mixture of cover crops - rather than a cover crop monoculture - between cash crops, provides increased agroecosystem services, or multifunctionality, according to researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. That was the conclusion drawn from a two-year study of 18 cover-crop treatments, ranging in diversity from one to eight plant species. Cover crops were grown at the Penn State Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center preceding a corn crop. The researchers measured five benefits provided by cover crops - ecosystem services - in each cover crop system to assess the relationship between species. Those services included weed suppression and nitrogen retention during the cover-crop season, cover-crop aboveground biomass, inorganic nitrogen supply during the subsequent cash-crop season and subsequent corn yield. The study was the first field-based test of the relationship between cover-crop species and multifunctionality - the quality of cover crops to simultaneously provide multiple benefits - noted research team member Jason Kaye , professor of soil biogeochemistry.