# Permaculture practices effect on soil fertility and organic matter distribution in aggregate-size classes

Félix de Tombeur, Valentin Sohy, Claire Chenu, Jean-Thomas Cornelis

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Félix de Tombeur, Valentin Sohy, Claire Chenu, Jean-Thomas Cornelis. Permaculture practices effect on soil fertility and organic matter distribution in aggregate-size classes. EGU, European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2018, Apr 2018, Vienne, Austria. hal-01796516

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LIÈGE université
Gembloux
Agro-Bio Tech

# Permaculture practices effect on soil fertility and organic matter distribution in aggregate-size classes

de Tombeur Félix¹, Valentin Sohy¹, Claire Chenu², Jean-Thomas Cornélis¹

¹Department of Biosystem Engineering (BIOSE), Gembloux AgroBioTech, University of Liège (Uliege), 5030 Gembloux, Belgium

²UMR Ecosys, INRA AgroParisTech, University Paris Saclay, CNRS, 78850 Thiverval Grignon, France

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Contact me at
felix detombeur@uliege.be

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The increasing awareness about the negative impacts of modern agriculture (Stoate et al. 2009) has led to the question of a transition towards a resilient and sustainable agriculture model (Ferguson & Lovell 2014). In this regard, micro- or mini-farms inspired from permaculture model (Mollison & Holmgren 1990) and biointensive micro-gardening could potentially play a key role in this transition (Morel et al. 2017). However, these systems have been largely overlooked by soil scientists and generally isolated from scientific research (Ferguson & Lovell 2014).

Such practices can be very specific from one system to another but are always characterized by the use of organic fertilizers. Soil organic matter (SOM) plays a fundamental role in soil functioning by maintaining fertility through nutrients recycling and being one of the major compounds of soil aggregates, essential to maintain soil resilience to physical stresses and to enhance carbon storage through physical protection (Six et al. 2002). Henceforth, it is crucial to test the extent to which permaculture practices, characterized by (1) intensive cultivation (2) the non-use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides and (3) very large and localized organic inputs, can sustain nutrient release and retention through decomposition processes in soils while increasing OC stocks, to partly compensate human emissions (Dignac et al. 2017).

In this work, we aim to study the effect of permaculture practices characterized by very large and localized organic inputs on soil fertility parameters and SOM allocation in aggregate-size classes.

## 2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

**Location:** Le Bec-Hellouin (Normandie, France), oceanic climate

**Studied soils:** 3 soils managed with permaculture practices (mounds, beds and forest garden), 1 pasture representing the situation of the three permaculture soils before cultivation (exact same location) and 1 soil under conventional agriculture practices (2 km, used as a reference for conventional agriculture practices); three replicates made of three subsamples.

<table><thead><tr><th>Site name</th><th>Pasture</th><th>Permaculture mounds</th><th>Permaculture beds</th><th>Permaculture forest-garden</th><th>Conventional</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Characteristics of cultivation</td><td>/</td><td>Mound-cultivation; very high maintenance</td><td>Beds cultivation; very high maintenance</td><td>Vertical strata (tree, shrub, herbaceous); low maintenance</td><td>NPK fertilizers; ploughing; pesticides</td></tr><tr><td>Organic inputs nature</td><td>None</td><td>Horse manure</td><td>Horse manure</td><td>None</td><td>None (mineral fertilization)</td></tr><tr><td>Mean annual input (t.ha<sup>-1</sup>.yr<sup>-1</sup>)</td><td>/</td><td>225-330</td><td>225-330</td><td>/</td><td>/</td></tr></tbody></table>

**Soil characteristics:** Bioavailable major nutrients (P, Ca, Mg, K) extracted with ammonium acetate-EDTA 1M; Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) by Metson method; OC & total N with a CN analyzer; bulk soil densities (excavation method)

**Soil aggregate-size classes separation** (wet-sieving + 250-2000 µm fraction breakdown; Six et al. 1998; 2000):

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /></figure>

In order to combine aggregate-size distributions and their OC concentrations, we multiplied the mass percentage relative to bulk soil of each fraction by its OC concentration. It allows us to test the contribution of each fraction to the total OC stock, as shown on the right.

## REFERENCES

* Stoate, C. et al., Environ. Manage. 2009, 91, 22-46; **Ferguson**, R. S. et al., Agron. Sustain. Dev. 2014, 34, 251-274; **Mollison**, B. et al., Tagari 1990; **Morel**, K. et al., Agric. Syst. 2017, 158, 39-49; **Six**, J. et al., Plant Soil 2002, 241, 155-176; **Six**, J. et al., Soil Biol. Biochem. 2000, 32, 2099-2103; **Dignac**, M.-F. et al., Agron. Sustain. Dev. 2017, 37, 14; **Lucas**, Y., Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 2001, 29, 135-163; **Jobbagy**, E. G. et al., Biogeochemistry 2001, 53, 51-77; **Cheng**, X. et al., Biogeosciences 2011, 8, 1487-1498; **Poeplau**, C. et al., Glob. Chang. Biol. 2017, 23, 1316-1327; **Gulde**, S. et al., Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 2008, 72, 605; **Six**, J. et al., Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 1998, 62, 1367.

## 3 RESULTS

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>OC stocks increase (Mg.ha⁻¹)</figcaption></figure>

Total nitrogen concentrations were significantly higher in permaculture mounds and beds (6.2 and 6.3 g.kg⁻¹) compared to pasture (5.5 g.kg⁻¹) but not permaculture forest garden (5.8 g.kg⁻¹). CEC remains the same between the permaculture soils and the reference plot pasture (around 32 cmolc.kg⁻¹).

## 5 TAKE HOME MESSAGE

* Permaculture practices could potentially constitute an interesting model for agricultural transition, but scientific data are scarce.

* The very large and localized organic inputs enhance OC stocks.

* The mineralization of amendments (or litterfall for the forest garden plot) enhances bioavailable nutrients concentrations.

* After 7 years of cultivation, the additional OC storage is mainly achieved through large particulate organic matter (POM), non-associated with minerals.

## 4 DISCUSSION AND PERSPECTIVES

Permaculture practices strongly increased OC concentrations and stocks in soil compared to the initial state of soil pasture through very large annual organic inputs (48 ‰ per year). Despite the absence of organic inputs in the forest garden, OC stocks remain higher compared to the reference parcel pasture, probably due the vertical stratification of the crops and the return of biomass through litterfall. In average, between 8% and 12% of the yearly inputs are stored.

The mineralization of organic amendments into the permaculture systems mounds and beds releases a high amount of nutrients in soil solution. The forest garden plot receives no organic amendments but shows concentrations of bioavailable nutrients as high as the others (with the exception of total nitrogen). This observation is probably due to (1) the smallest amount of biomass exports in this plot, and (2) a more developed root system due to the vertical strata system, stimulating the weathering of parent material and the return of nutrients with litterfall (Lucas 2001; Jobbagy & Jackson 2001).

The increase of OC stocks in the bulk soils is mainly due to the coarse POM content (which explains the non-increase of CEC), which represents a fraction less stable and more sensitive to mineralization in case of temperatures increase or land-use changes (Cheng et al. 2011; Poeplau et al. 2017). However, time since cultivation is probably too short to allow the progressive decomposition of the very large manure inputs applied by the farmers towards more reactive molecules associated with minerals. Another hypothesis could be the saturation of the permaculture soils leading to an increase of labile soil C fractions such as coarse POM, with a faster turnover (Gulde et al. 2008).

Further temporal research is needed to study the dynamic of this very large coarse POM pool and its potential ability to enhance macroaggregates rate and the formation of protected microaggregates in those (Six et al. 2000). Finally, a C balance should be performed at this scale, in order to determine if OC storage in cultivated plots corresponds to a net sink of CO₂ at the farm scale.