DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13620005
title: Decomposition data in organic, permaculture and conventional horticultural farms of Central Hungary

description: This dataset has been produced from the PhD research of Alfréd Szilágyi supervised by Csaba Centeri and Eszter Kovács Tormáné. The study compared permaculture, organic and conventional farming systems regarding their ecosystem-service provision potential and sustainability. Multiple ecological indicators were measured in the field during the field study in 2020, and the basic datasets (soil test results; photo gallery of the studied farms with soil core sample; soil resistance and moisture; decomposition; earthworms; nematodes; soil surface fauna; pollinators; agrobiodiversity and habitat types) are uploaded in Zenodo separately to provide scientific data on permaculture systems. In this way, we hope to contribute to international efforts to evaluate the performance of agroecological agriculture alternatives. These publications also serve as supplements to the PhD thesis. For the sake of further usability of the datasets short description of the used methods is described. For further information please contact the authors.
description: To investigate the fresh organic matter decomposition capacity of farm soils, I used the so-called litter bag method (plant residue bag). I used Elymus repens (Couch grass) chips collected from a single location (Kóspallag, Hungary) in spring and air-dried in a dryer (50°C for 48 h). The grass cuttings were shredded with scissors, and then stuffed into plastic canvas bags, filling a total of 540 bags. The bags were individually coded, and then each bag was filled with between 1 and 2 g of biomass and recorded together in a database. I placed the bags in the sample plots on 21-23 May 2020, 6 bags per farm at 6 points, which I fixed to the soil surface with loop sticks and toothpicks. Where there was a continuous cover of plants, I removed the plants and in all cases fixed the bags to bare soil. I collected the bags intermittently on three occasions (16-18 July first time, 27-29 August second time, 21-23 September third time), 2 bags per point each time. Afterwards, I first stored the bags at room temperature for a few weeks and then air-dried the bags again with the residues in a drier. Finally, I measured the remaining plant residues from the bags in the laboratory using an analytical balance.
description: A summary of the PhD dissertation:

Our prevailing agricultural system violates sustainability criteria at many points and has a severe impact on natural ecosystems, as many studies and researchers have shown today. Several concepts have emerged on how to harmonize the maintenance of agroecosystems with production needs, one of them being sustainability and the more recent concept of ecosystem services. The objectives of the two concepts are very similar, as they both seek to balance the functions of agriculture and harmonize the impact of humans on the environment, but within a different conceptual framework. The common problem is how to measure, demonstrate, and communicate to society, the extent to which individual farms can meet these principles in practice. During my research, I started by analyzing this problem at the conceptual, and methodological levels but my main objective was to compare permaculture, organic and conventional farming systems along the two concepts based on empirical research. To this end, I conducted field studies in 15 small-scale, diverse horticultural farms (5-5-5 of each of the three types) in Pest and Nógrád counties in Hungary in 2020, related to soil, biodiversity or a specific ecosystem service (e.g. predation, decomposition, pollination). After the field and laboratory work, I interviewed the participating farmers in the first half of 2021, part of which was structured (to assess farming practices), while the second half was semi-structured questions to assess farmer attitudes. The data were first aggregated at farm type level and significant differences were statistically analyzed, while at the same time, the interviews were also aggregated and subjected to qualitative content analysis. I then aggregated the results along the four dimensions of sustainability and five ecosystem services and carried out a complex assessment. Finally, the data were thematically organized and subjected to principal component analysis to explore the interrelations between them.

 I found several significant differences between the farming systems, most of which supported the existence of positive ecological benefits of permaculture farming. I found that in the good governance dimension, permaculture performed best in terms of ethical farm management, while organic farming performed best in terms of professional management. In the environmental dimension, permaculture performed the best, with conventional performing the least. In the economic dimension, organic farming performed best, with permaculture performing the least. In the social dimension, organic farming performed best in terms of farmer welfare, while permaculture in terms of social innovation and participation; conventional farming underperformed both organic and permaculture. In all cases, permaculture had the highest potential for the studied ecosystem services (decomposition, global climate regulation, predation and pollination), as well as biodiversity as a characteristic of agroecosystem status. I have made several suggestions for further development of the research, emphasizing that it would be worthwhile to carry out more detailed, multi-year measurements with a larger sample size.