Cover Crops | Soil Health
Digging Deeper – Cover Crops & N2O Emissions
A pair of short-duration studies on Illinois fields suggested that cover crops reduce nitrate leaching (a win for water quality) but may increase nitrous oxide (N2O, a greenhouse gas). ISAP wanted to dig deeper into potential trade-offs and understand the environmental costs and benefits of cover crops.
This guide describes denitrification, a microbial process that is responsible for most N2O emissions from agricultural soils, and breaks down scientific literature to understand the larger picture of cover crops and N2O.
