Organic fertilisation, soil quality and human health

International audienceChapters: 1) Convergence or divide in the movement for sustainable and just agriculture. 2) No-till agriculture in the USA. 3) Organic fertilizers in sub-Saharan farming systems. 4) Biofuel Production Byproducts as Soil Amendments. 5) Pseudomonas and microbes for disease-suppressive soils. 6) Conservation Tillage Impact on Soil Aggregation, Organic Matter Turnover and Biodiversity. 7) Sustainable agricultural NP turnover in the 27 European countries. 8) Tomato production for human health, not only for food. 9) Jute biology, diversity, cultivation, pest control, fiber production and genetics. 10) Decision Support Systems for Agrotechnology Transfer. 11) Plant growth retardants and mineral fertilisers for cotton

Farming for food and water security

International audienceChapters: 1) Public goods and farming. 2) Pesticides and sustainable agriculture. 3) Nitrogen use efficiency by annual and perennial crops. 4) Microalgae for bioremediation of distillery effluent. 5) No-till direct seeding for energy-saving rice production in China. 6) Agricultural water poverty index for a sustainable world. 7) Participatory rural appraisal to solve irrigation issues. 8) Bioavailability of soil P for plant nutrition. 9) Animal manure for smallholder agriculture in South Africa. 10) Vermicompost and soil quality

Social media to promote the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development

poster présentant les réseaux sociaux utilisables pour la promotion des revues : blog, twitter, Mendeley, Google

Isotope and molecular evidence for direct input of maize leaf wax n-alkanes into crop soils

International audienceThe contribution of plant carbon to crop soils can be followed by isotope labelling at natural abundance, such as growing a C4 plant on a soil which was previously under C3 vegetation. For this purpose, carbon isotope compositions and relative abundances of n alkanes of maize leaf waxes and maize crop soils were compared. Isotope values of soil n alkanes increased with time of maize cultivation as the result of maize carbon integration into soil organic matter. With increasing time of cultivation, the increase in isotopic difference between n-heptacosane (C27) and n nonacosane (C29) is explained, at least partly, by a direct input of maize leaf n-alkanes. The amount of maize-derived carbon within each n-alkane has been calculated by isotopic means

Unexpected 13C-enrichment of organic components from wheat crop soils: evidence for the in situ origin of soil organic matter

International audienceVarious organic constituents extracted from wheat and from soil organic matter have been analyzed for their carbon content, their absolute concentration and their stable carbon isotope ratios. Most organic subfractions from plants, or soil, are 13C-depleted by up to 9.4‰ relative to bulk organic matter, mainly as a result of their higher lipid content. Furthermore, soil organic constituents are unexpectedly 13C-enriched by +1.5‰ to +4.3‰ relative to homologous plant constituents. Indeed, the selective preservation of plant lignin and lipids, following incorporation into the soil biomass, should have led to the accumulation of 13C-depleted compounds. Hence, these results favour the in situ formation of soil organic matter either by recondensation of small molecules or by selective preservation of biopolymers from soil microorganisms

Molecular, 13C, and 14C evidence for the allochthonous and ancient origin of C16-C18 n-alkanes in modern soils

International audienceThe heterogeneous isotopic composition of C3 and C4 plants can be used to to follow the fate of plant carbon into soil organic molecules. Thus, after 23 years of cropping of maize (C4) on a soil which was previously under C3 vegetation, C25 C33 soil n-alkanes are 13C-enriched up to 9‰ relatively to the initial C3 soil, reflecting the input of 13C-enriched n-alkanes from maize waxes. In sharp contrast, C16-C18 soil n alkanes do not show any significant 13C/12C variation over the same time interval. This absence of isotopic variation, along with consideration of their relative concentration, absolute concentration and biodegradability, demonstrate that these substances must represent a regular input from an external source. Evidence of a large contribution of an ancient source, amounting to more than 65% of the alkane fraction, is given by a 14C-age of 8510 yrs BP. Moreover, short-chain n-alkanes from soils, diesel fuel, diesel automobile exhaust and petroleum products exhibit similar distributions and δ13C values. These findings suggests that C16-C18 soil n alkanes represent a non-point source pollution of ancient hydrocarbons either carried by aerosols or entering the soil via continuous hydrocarbon seepage from the deep sedimentary rocks of the Paris basin

(13)C/(12)C composition, a novel parameter to study the downward migration of paper sludge in soils†

δ(13)C values of crop and forest soils were measured 8 years after disposal of paper sewage sludge. The carbon transfer from paper sludge downward to the first humic layer is evidenced by a (13)C-enrichnient of up to + 5.6‰ due to the input of (13)C-enriched sludge carbonates. (13)C/(12)C composition is thus a novel, sensitive parameter to follow the downward transfer of paper sludge carbon