Global meta-analysis of the relationship between soil organic matter and crop yields

Oldfield, Emily E.; Bradford, Mark A.; Wood, Stephen A.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-5-15-2019

Articles | Volume 5, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-5-15-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-5-15-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 5, issue 1

Original research article

|

15 Jan 2019

Original research article |

| 15 Jan 2019

Global meta-analysis of the relationship between soil organic matter and crop yields

Emily E. Oldfield, Mark A. Bradford, and Stephen A. Wood

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Final revised paper (published on 15 Jan 2019)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 06 Aug 2018)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

- Printer-friendly version

- Supplement

RC1: 'Review', Anonymous Referee #1, 14 Sep 2018
- AC1: 'Response to review', Emily Oldfield, 19 Sep 2018
RC2: 'Referee #2 comments', Anonymous Referee #2, 21 Sep 2018
- AC2: 'Response to review', Emily Oldfield, 01 Oct 2018

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Revision (25 Oct 2018) by Cornelia Rumpel

AR by Emily Oldfield on behalf of the Authors (13 Nov 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (07 Dec 2018) by Cornelia Rumpel

ED: Publish as is (09 Dec 2018) by Johan Six (Executive editor)

AR by Emily Oldfield on behalf of the Authors (10 Dec 2018) Author's response Manuscript

Post-review adjustments

AA: Author's adjustment | EA: Editor approval

AA by Emily Oldfield on behalf of the Authors (02 Jan 2019) Author's adjustment Manuscript

EA: Adjustments approved (11 Jan 2019) by Cornelia Rumpel

Short summary

In this paper, we quantify the global-level relationship between soil organic matter and crop yield. We find that greater concentrations of soil organic matter are associated with greater yields and that increases in yields saturate around 2 % SOC. Using the relationship that we generate, we then provide an estimate of the potential for soil organic matter management to reduce global yield gaps for two of the most important staple crops (maize and wheat) grown worldwide.