• Lentils
• Soil Health
• Sustainability
• University of Saskatchewan

Objective

To compare soil quality parametres on a continuous wheat and a wheat-lentil system. To track and quantify the below-ground carbon and nitrogen (N) contributions of lentil into specific soil organic matter fractions. To compare soil gross mineralization and gross nitrification rates on a continuous wheat and wheat-lentil system. To calculate a stabilization efficiency factor for lentil, which can be used to develop a spreadsheet approach and/or adjust a simple empirical model to estimate SOC change in response to lentil production.

Outcome

The results indicated that the below-ground carbon contribution of lentil is about 30% higher than had been previously estimated. The results improve the ability to predict soil organic carbon change for crop rotations that include lentils. Results from this work also demonstrated that the magnitude of below-ground nitrogen (N) transformations associated with roots is much greater than previously estimated, and that root carbon and N dynamics appear to be largely uncoupled.