Are there universal soil responses to cover cropping? A systematic review

Cover cropping is commonly acknowledged to promote soil health in agriculture. However, contradictory findings on the benefits of cover crops for soil health, crop productivity, economic and ecological factors, as well as the influence of inherent soil parameters on such benefits exist in the scientific literature. Here, we critically assessed evidence of cover crop benefits through a systematic review of the published literature. To access relevant papers, we searched the literature for cover crops and soil health indicators using Scopus (1996–2020), ScienceDirect (1996–2020) and Google scholar (1970–1996) with specific keywords and combinations. Only English research papers including experimental plots and control groups were considered. We analyzed 102 unique peer-reviewed papers and 1494 corresponding unique plots encompassing various cover crops, soil textures, climates, management systems and experimental duration (1–3 years, 4–6 years, 7–10 years and over 10 years). Strong evidence suggests that cover crops can enhance soil structure and promote soil health by improving soil physical and chemical properties, including saturated hydraulic conductivity (mean net change of 105.6 %), total organic carbon (10.1 %), and total nitrogen (20.2 %). On the other hand, cover crops exhibit weak effects on properties like bulk density and microporosity with fairly low values of net change. In most cases, cover crops increase the soil carbon content, including microbial biomass carbon (19.5 %) and particulate organic carbon (49.5 %). In this systematic review, we found limited studies on the effect of cover crops on soil health as influenced by soil texture, regional climate, rainfall and duration of the cover crop practices. The paucity of long-term regional systematic research of soil physics, chemistry and biology makes it difficult to forecast future implications of cover crops on soil health indicators. [Display omitted] •Cover crops enhance soil structure by improving soil physical and chemical properties.•Cover crops exhibit weak effects on properties like bulk density and porosity.•Cover crops increase soil carbon content, microbial biomass & particular organic carbon.•Cover crops improve soil health by reducing compaction, increasing porosity, C and N content.•Cover crops improve the flow of soil water and the transport of soluble nutrients.