Leguminous cover crops have the potential to contribute to soil protection against
erosion and improve carbon sequestration, soil and water quality and might help agricultura!
systems become more resilient to climate change. The aim of this study was to investigate the
effects of a cover crop of self-reseeding annuallegumes of short growing cycle on physiological
and biochemical responses of twenty-six-year-old olive trees (Olea europaea L. cv.
Cobrançosa) grown under rainfed conditions, when compared with conventional tillage. The
results showed that the leguminous cover crop ameliorates the physiological and biochemical
performance of olive tree during the drought season, judging by the rise of net photosynthesis,
transpiration rate and stomatal conductance, whereas the opposite pattern was observed for the
concentration of total phenols and for total antioxidant activity in leaves. ln addition, it was
observed an increase on yield, size and weight of olive fruits. These results indicate that the use
of well-designed, locally-tailored cover crop mixtures, associated with an appropriate mowing
time, is a very promising strategy to implement in olive orchards under water scarcity. Thus,
cover cropping is a win-win strategy as it increases farm benefits and provides ecosystem
services.This work was funded by the INTERACT project- "Jntcgrative Research in Environment, Agro-Chains and Technology",
no. NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000017, in its !ines of research entitled ISAC, co-tinanced by the European Regional Devclopment Fund
(ERDF) through NORTE 2020 (North Regional Operational Program 20 14/2020). SM (PD/BD/135327/2017), EM (PD/BD/128274/2017) and
CB (PD/BD/52543/2014) acknowledge the financ ial support provided by the FCT-Portuguese Foundatíon for Science and Technology, under
the Doctoral Programme "Agricultura] Production Chains- from fork to farm" (PD/00122/2012).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
