Low-intensity management promotes the soil priming effect in European agroecosystems

Dong, Xiaohan (author), Vera, Alfonso (author), Patiño, María (author), Siles, José A. (author), Suhadolc, Marjetka (author), Govednik, Anton (author), Mihelič, Rok (author), Mocali, Stefano (author), Bastida, Felipe (author)

Agricultural management is critical in shaping soil carbon (C) stocks, pools and fluxes. The soil priming effect (PE) is known as a key component of the global C cycle that reflects alterations in soil organic carbon (SOC) mineralization induced by fresh C inputs. Here, we show that priming can help to predict soil C content across European Long-Term Experiments (LTEs), a result which was maintained at continental and global scales. Results reveal that lower-intensity management significantly enhances PE in soils from European croplands. Conversely, high-intensity management led to lower or even negative PE. Management intensity influences PE directly through alterations in SOC and indirectly by modifying aggregates stability and microbial biomass. Both fertilization and tillage affect PE, with soils under organic fertilization and no-tillage showing higher values of PE. These findings advance our understanding of the long-term impacts of agricultural management on the C cycle at the continental scale.

• Language: English
• Keywords: agricultural management, soil organic carbon, microbial biomass, tillage, C cycle
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 12 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 17, art. 3819
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-182324
• UDC: 631.4
• ISSN on article: 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-71255-9
• COBISS.SI-ID: 275502339
• Publication date in RUL: 07.05.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Nature communications
• Shortened title: Nat. Commun.
• Publisher: Springer Nature
• ISSN: 2041-1723
• COBISS.SI-ID: 2315876

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: kroženje ogljika, cikel ogljika, organski ogljik v tleh, mikrobna biomasa, intenzivnost kmetovanja, obdelava tal

Projects

• Funder: EC - European Commission
• Funding programme: H2020
• Project number: 862695
• Name: Towards climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soils
• Acronym: EJP SOIL