ABSTRACT
Agricultural land use is responsible for the deterioration of soil organic carbon (SOC) over time through the accelerated rates of mineralization and erosion. The potential of cover crop to increase SOC depends on three processes: quantity of above- and belowground biomass input, rate of biomass decomposition, and cover crop-derived C assimilation rate in the SOC pool. In this chapter, factors controlling these three processes are discussed at length to understand the current advances and identify the knowledge gaps to formulate management decisions and enhance the SOC sequestration potential of cover crop management practice. Besides species, cover crop biomass production also depends on other factors, like soil characteristics, cropping systems, and management. Most of the current crop modeling has not included the cover cropping in their structure under different scenarios due to lack of datasets; availability of more data from cover crop studies will make it possible for the future prediction of changes in SOC under cover cropping.
