Soil organic carbon, enzyme activity, and maize yield data from winter cover-crop systems in subtropical southern Brazil.
Description
This dataset contains soil and crop data from a field experiment evaluating eight winter cover-crop strategies (fallow, single species, and grass-legume-brassica mixtures) followed by maize, conducted across three subtropical environments in southern Brazil during the 2024/25 and 2025/26 growing seasons. The dataset includes: soil organic carbon (SOC) and carbon stocks; β-glucosidase (BG) and arylsulfatase (ARYL) enzyme activities; soil bulk density (BD); cover-crop biomass; and maize grain yield. Soil samples were collected at multiple depths across each site. Data are organized by site, cover-crop treatment, soil depth, and growing season. These data support the findings reported in Cover-crop diversity effects on soil carbon, enzyme activity and maize yield vary across subtropical edaphoclimatic environments, which evaluates synergies and trade-offs among soil organic matter, biological soil health, and crop performance under different cover-crop management strategies.
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Steps to reproduce
The field experiment was established in three subtropical environments in southern Brazil, comparing eight winter cover-crop strategies (fallow, single species, and grass-legume-brassica mixtures) in a randomized complete block design.. Cover crops were sown in May/June and terminated prior to maize sowing in each growing season (2024/25 and 2025/26). Cover-crop biomass was sampled at termination by collecting plant material from a known area per plot, oven-dried, and weighed to determine dry mass. Soil samples were collected at 0-5, 5-10, 10-20 cm from each plot, air-dried, and sieved (2 mm) prior to laboratory analysis. Soil organic carbon (SOC) was determined by Walkley-Black. β-glucosidase (BG) and arylsulfatase (ARYL) enzyme activities were determined following Tabatabai method, based on the colorimetric quantification of p-nitrophenol (PNP) release. Bulk density was calculated as the ratio of oven-dry soil mass to ring volume. Maize was sown following cover-crop termination, and grain yield was determined at harvest by manually harvesting 30 ears randomly selected from the usable area of each plot, corrected to 13% moisture content. Data were compiled and organized by site, treatment, depth, and growing season into the accompanying spreadsheet.