Cover crops do increase soil organic carbon stocks—A critical comment on Chaplot and Smith (2023)

2024/01/01 by Christopher Poeplau, Zhi Liang, Axel Don +15 · 2 voices · 3 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology #Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics #Soil and Water Nutrient Dynamics

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/gcb.17128

openalex publication_date 2024/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

Most of the exclusion criteria are not justified. We conclude that the doubts on the positive effects of cover crops on SOC are unjustified. Moreover, their opinion on the relevance of policies and the use of public subsidies is a political point of view that is expressed without any nuance and is very debatable given the obvious weaknesses of their study. Finally, it is alarming that this manuscript even passed the review process of such a high impact journal. Christopher Poeplau: Conceptualization; writing – original draft. Zhi Liang: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Axel Don: Conceptualization; writing – review and editing. Daria Seitz: Writing – review and editing. Chiara De Notaris: Writing – review and editing. Denis Angers: Writing – review and editing. Pierre Barré: Writing – review and editing. Damien Beillouin: Writing – review and editing. Rémi Cardinael: Writing – review and editing. Eric Ceschia: Writing – review and editing. Claire Chenu: Writing – review and editing. Julie Constantin: Writing – review and editing. Julien Demenois: Writing – review and editing. Bruno Mary: Writing – review and editing. Sylvain Pellerin: Writing – review and editing. Daniel Plaza-Bonilla: Writing – review and editing. Miguel Quemada: Writing – review and editing. Eric Justes: Conceptualization; writing – original draft. We do not have a conflict of interest to declare. There is no data involved in this letter.

Cited by

• Supporting the spatial allocation of management practices to improve ecosystem services – An opportunity map approach for agricultural landscapes
• Impacts of long-term cassava-based conservation agriculture systems on soil greenhouse gas emissions in Cambodia
• Identifying key parameters for cover crop C sequestration across process-based models

Discussions

• Just published, a letter to the Editor from Poeplau et al.: Cover crops do increase soil organic carbon stocks—A critical comment on Chaplot and Smith (2023) 👉 doi.org/10.1111/gcb.... #soilscien [bsky, 6 points, 0 comments]
• Poeplau et al recently summarized a few meta-meta -analyses, which concluded c.a. 210 kg C/ha/yr in the temperate zone. 2/3 doi.org/10.1111/gcb.... [bsky, 2 points, 1 comments]

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