Özet:

: Legume cover crops in temperate cropping systems can fix substantial amounts of nitrogen (N) and reduce N fertiliser requirements for subsequent crops. However, little is known about potential biological N 2 fixation by summer cover crop legumes in the short summer fallow in Mediterranean-type cropping systems. Six legume species (balansa clover, barrel medic, mung bean, sunn hemp, lablab and cowpea) were grown for 8–9 weeks in the field in semi-arid southern Australia during the summer fallow, and in a glasshouse experiment, to estimate N 2 fixation using the 15N natural abundance method. Cowpea, sunn hemp and lablab produced 1.2–3.0 t ha −1 biomass in the field while balansa clover and barrel medic produced < 1.0 t ha −1. The percent of N derived from the atmosphere (%Ndfa) in the field ranged from 39% in barrel medic to 73% in sunn hemp, but only 15% (balansa clover) to 33% (sunn hemp) in the glasshouse experiment, likely due to higher soil mineral N availability in the glasshouse study. Biological N 2 fixation of cowpea and sunn hemp in the field was 46–55 kg N ha −1, while N 2 fixation in lablab and mung bean was lower (around 26 kg N ha −1). The N 2 fixation in cowpea and sunn hemp of around 50 kg N ha −1 with supplementary irrigation in the field trial likely represents the upper limit of N contributions in the field in typically hot, dry summer conditions in Mediterranean-type climates. Given that any increase in summer cover crop biomass will have implications for water balances and subsequent cash crop growth, maximising N benefits of legume cover crops will rely on increasing the %Ndfa through improved rhizobium strains or inoculation technologies. This study provides the first known estimates of biological N 2 fixation by legume cover crops in the summer fallow period in cropping systems in Mediterranean-type environments, providing a benchmark for further studies.

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