{"type": "FeatureCollection", "features": [{"id": "10.1007/s10705-025-10429-1", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-05-25T16:14:41Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2025-08-20", "title": "Regenerating productivity after soil fertility depletion in a 20-year cotton\u2013maize rotation in Benin", "description": "Abstract

Soil degradation is a major challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa, where integrated soil fertility management has been promoted to restore productivity. A long-term experiment (1972\uffe2\uff80\uff931992) run in Benin consisted of two phases: a depletion phase (1972\uffe2\uff80\uff931980) with varying levels of mineral and organic fertilisation, and a regeneration phase (1981\uffe2\uff80\uff931992) where all plots received full fertilisation and organic matter additions. Soils were sampled at 0\uffe2\uff80\uff9320\uffc2\uffa0cm depth in 1973, 1974, 1982, and 1989 to assess fertility changes. Mineral fertilisation (N, P, K) and plant biomass management (crop residue retention and biomass additions) significantly influenced seed cotton and maize grain yields during the depletion phase. Soil organic carbon declined consistently in all treatments during depletion but remained stable during regeneration. The long-term effect was evident only in seed cotton yield during depletion. In contrast, due to high variability, maize grain yield showed no consistent trend. The combined use of organic resources and mineral fertilisers helped maintain crop productivity but led to declining soil chemical properties in this Ferralsol. The analysis of this outdated yet unpublished dataset shed light on how long-term soil depletion effects persist over time, even when soil fertility management is restored, indicating a sort of \uffe2\uff80\uff98soil memory\uffe2\uff80\uff99. The persistence of these effect suggests that regenerative interventions must begin before critical thresholds of degradation are crossed. Future research should focus on alternative measures to restore/maintain soil fertility not evaluated in this experiment, such as conservation tillage or legume integration, to provide long-term benefits for smallholder farmers facing soil fertility challenges.Bionanohybrids of carbon nanotubes and fluorescent proteins (FPs) are a promising class of materials for optoelectronic applications. Understanding and controlling the charge transport mechanism between FPs and carbon nanotubes are critical to achieving functional reproducibility and exploring novel synergetic effects. This work demonstrates a novel phenomenon of photocurrent generation in field\uffe2\uff80\uff90effect transistors based on the conjugation of an individual single\uffe2\uff80\uff90walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) and FPs. When studying the effect of gate voltage on the photoresponse, reversible switching from fast positive to a slow negative photoresponse in bionanohybrids associated with depletion and accumulation modes, respectively is observed. The latter demonstrates a stable memory effect after the light is turned off. It is revealed that in depletion mode, the charge carriers from the protein are not trapped at the interface due to effective screening by the gate potential. It is suggested that the main mechanism in photoresponse switching is a competitive effect between photogating and effective photodoping of the SWCNT by charges trapped at the nanotube interface. The noticeable effect of water molecules can support proton transfer as the main mechanism of charge transfer. This result illustrates that SWCNT/FP bionanohybrids bear great potential for the realization of novel optoelectronic devices.Soil degradation is a major challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa, where integrated soil fertility management has been promoted to restore productivity. A long-term experiment (1972\uffe2\uff80\uff931992) run in Benin consisted of two phases: a depletion phase (1972\uffe2\uff80\uff931980) with varying levels of mineral and organic fertilisation, and a regeneration phase (1981\uffe2\uff80\uff931992) where all plots received full fertilisation and organic matter additions. Soils were sampled at 0\uffe2\uff80\uff9320\uffc2\uffa0cm depth in 1973, 1974, 1982, and 1989 to assess fertility changes. Mineral fertilisation (N, P, K) and plant biomass management (crop residue retention and biomass additions) significantly influenced seed cotton and maize grain yields during the depletion phase. Soil organic carbon declined consistently in all treatments during depletion but remained stable during regeneration. The long-term effect was evident only in seed cotton yield during depletion. In contrast, due to high variability, maize grain yield showed no consistent trend. The combined use of organic resources and mineral fertilisers helped maintain crop productivity but led to declining soil chemical properties in this Ferralsol. The analysis of this outdated yet unpublished dataset shed light on how long-term soil depletion effects persist over time, even when soil fertility management is restored, indicating a sort of \uffe2\uff80\uff98soil memory\uffe2\uff80\uff99. The persistence of these effect suggests that regenerative interventions must begin before critical thresholds of degradation are crossed. Future research should focus on alternative measures to restore/maintain soil fertility not evaluated in this experiment, such as conservation tillage or legume integration, to provide long-term benefits for smallholder farmers facing soil fertility challenges.