Cover crops play an increasingly important role in improving soil quality, reducing agricultural inputs and improving environmental sustainability. The main objectives of this critical global review and systematic analysis were to assess cover crop practices in the context of their impacts on nitrogen leaching, net greenhouse gas balances (NGHGB) and crop productivity. Only studies that investigated the impacts of cover crops and measured one or a combination of nitrogen leaching, soil organic carbon (SOC), nitrous oxide (N2O), grain yield and nitrogen in grain of primary crop, and had a control treatment were included in the analysis. Long\uffe2\uff80\uff90term studies were uncommon, with most data coming from studies lasting 2\uffe2\uff80\uff933\uffc2\uffa0years. The literature search resulted in 106 studies carried out at 372 sites and covering different countries, climatic zones and management. Our analysis demonstrates that cover crops significantly (p\uffc2\uffa0<\uffc2\uffa00.001) decreased N leaching and significantly (p\uffc2\uffa0<\uffc2\uffa00.001) increased SOC sequestration without having significant (p\uffc2\uffa0>\uffc2\uffa00.05) effects on direct N2O emissions. Cover crops could mitigate the NGHGB by 2.06\uffc2\uffa0\uffc2\uffb1\uffc2\uffa02.10\uffc2\uffa0Mg CO2\uffe2\uff80\uff90eq\uffc2\uffa0ha\uffe2\uff88\uff921\uffc2\uffa0year\uffe2\uff88\uff921. One of the potential disadvantages of cover crops identified was the reduction in grain yield of the primary crop by \uffe2\uff89\uff884%, compared to the control treatment. This drawback could be avoided by selecting mixed cover crops with a range of legumes and non\uffe2\uff80\uff90legumes, which increased the yield by \uffe2\uff89\uff8813%. These advantages of cover crops justify their widespread adoption. However, management practices in relation to cover crops will need to be adapted to specific soil, management and regional climatic conditions.
", "keywords": ["Crops", " Agricultural", "net greenhouse gas balance", "330", "Supplementary Data", "Nitrogen", "QH301 Biology", "Supplementary data available", "12. Responsible consumption", "Nitrous oxide emissions", "QH301", "Greenhouse Gases", "Soil", "N content", "nitrate", "C sequestration", "N leaching", "Environmental Chemistry", "General Environmental Science", "NE/M019691/1", "2. Zero hunger", "Global and Planetary Change", "Catch crop", "Ecology", "Soil organic carbon", "green manure", "Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)", "Research Review", "Agriculture", "04 agricultural and veterinary sciences", "15. Life on land", "yield", "Crop Production", "13. Climate action", "N in grain", "Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)", "Cover crop", "0401 agriculture", " forestry", " and fisheries", "BB/N013484/1", "BB/N013468/1"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14644"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Global%20Change%20Biology", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1111/gcb.14644", "name": "item", "description": "10.1111/gcb.14644", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1111/gcb.14644"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2019-05-13T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.1111/gcb.14815", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"license": "Open Access", "updated": "2026-07-28T16:18:39Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2019-08-30", "title": "How to measure, report and verify soil carbon change to realize the potential of soil carbon sequestration for atmospheric greenhouse gas removal", "description": "AbstractThere is growing international interest in better managing soils to increase soil organic carbon (SOC) content to contribute to climate change mitigation, to enhance resilience to climate change and to underpin food security, through initiatives such as international \uffe2\uff80\uff984p1000\uffe2\uff80\uff99 initiative and the FAO's Global assessment of SOC sequestration potential (GSOCseq) programme. Since SOC content of soils cannot be easily measured, a key barrier to implementing programmes to increase SOC at large scale, is the need for credible and reliable measurement/monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) platforms, both for national reporting and for emissions trading. Without such platforms, investments could be considered risky. In this paper, we review methods and challenges of measuring SOC change directly in soils, before examining some recent novel developments that show promise for quantifying SOC. We describe how repeat soil surveys are used to estimate changes in SOC over time, and how long\uffe2\uff80\uff90term experiments and space\uffe2\uff80\uff90for\uffe2\uff80\uff90time substitution sites can serve as sources of knowledge and can be used to test models, and as potential benchmark sites in global frameworks to estimate SOC change. We briefly consider models that can be used to simulate and project change in SOC and examine the MRV platforms for SOC change already in use in various countries/regions. In the final section, we bring together the various components described in this review, to describe a new vision for a global framework for MRV of SOC change, to support national and international initiatives seeking to effect change in the way we manage our soils.There is growing international interest in better managing soils to increase soil organic carbon (SOC) content to contribute to climate change mitigation, to enhance resilience to climate change and to underpin food security, through initiatives such as international \uffe2\uff80\uff984p1000\uffe2\uff80\uff99 initiative and the FAO's Global assessment of SOC sequestration potential (GSOCseq) programme. Since SOC content of soils cannot be easily measured, a key barrier to implementing programmes to increase SOC at large scale, is the need for credible and reliable measurement/monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) platforms, both for national reporting and for emissions trading. Without such platforms, investments could be considered risky. In this paper, we review methods and challenges of measuring SOC change directly in soils, before examining some recent novel developments that show promise for quantifying SOC. We describe how repeat soil surveys are used to estimate changes in SOC over time, and how long\uffe2\uff80\uff90term experiments and space\uffe2\uff80\uff90for\uffe2\uff80\uff90time substitution sites can serve as sources of knowledge and can be used to test models, and as potential benchmark sites in global frameworks to estimate SOC change. We briefly consider models that can be used to simulate and project change in SOC and examine the MRV platforms for SOC change already in use in various countries/regions. In the final section, we bring together the various components described in this review, to describe a new vision for a global framework for MRV of SOC change, to support national and international initiatives seeking to effect change in the way we manage our soils.