Comparison

Crop rotations—sequentially planting different crop species on the same plot of land—are an important strategy for building soil fertility and ultimately for supporting crop yields. This comparison includes European studies that evaluate the effect of legume crop rotations on cereal crop yields relative to continuous crop monocultures, cropping systems where the same crop species is repeatedly planted on the same plot of land over time. Papers included in the comparison were identified through a Web of Science search that included the following search terms: "legum* rotation*" AND ("grain yield" OR "cereal yield" OR "grain productivity" OR "cereal productivity" OR "grain biomass" OR "cereal biomass") AND (effective* OR performance* OR assessment* OR evaluation* OR estimate* OR comparison* OR contrast*) AND Europe*. Selected papers include those that were either open access or accessible through the University of Leibniz, Hannover Technical Information Library, and that provided information on cereal crop yields in the text or in tables; data presented in figures or plots that required extraction were not included in this comparison. The search yielded 29 papers; data from three papers met the eligibility criteria and were included in the comparison. *This is an updated version of the original comparison published in October 2022. In this new version, I added a property, "has effect", to provide a qualitative summary of the effect of the legume rotation on the crop yield (i.e., positive, negative, or neutral). I also fixed a numerical typo associated with the Tamm et al. publication.