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Aims <p>Agriculture intensification, combined with the ongoing effects of climate change, has led to a critical decline in soil health and quality, impairing food production and ecosystem functioning. This highlights the need to promote environmentally friendly management practices that integrate the conservation of agricultural lands and local biodiversity. Regenerative agriculture offers a holistic approach and an integrated crop management strategy for the sustainable management of soils. It typically involves reducing tillage and agrochemical inputs while incorporating livestock, organic amendments, biofertilizers, cover crops, and crop rotations into food production systems.</p> Methods <p>In this study, we assessed the effects of a five-year regenerative farming model that included the application of self-produced biofertilizers on key soil attributes, including soil physicochemical properties, fertility, microbial enzymatic activity, and soil faunal communities. Using a chrono-sequence approach, we evaluated fields converted to regenerative management 1, 2, and 5&#xa0;years prior to sampling, alongside conventional control plots.</p> Results <p>Regenerative management increased soil moisture and organic matter, while reducing electrical conductivity. Enzymatic activities, particularly leucine aminopeptidase and phosphatase, increased significantly across the conversion chrono-sequence. Faunal responses included a rise in mite abundance and enchytraeid worm populations after two years, followed by a shift in the fifth year toward dominance by larger arthropods such as insects, crustaceans, and millipedes.</p> Conclusion <p>Our results suggest that agroecological farming represents a promising alternative for improving the health and functioning of soils in horticultural crop systems, while also emphasizing the importance of developing strategies to overcome the negative effects associated with the initial stages of conversion.</p>

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Regenerative agriculture improves soil functioning and the complexity of soil food webs after a short transition period

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年3月18日

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  • Mónica Molinares-Becerra,
  • Juan F. Aguiar,
  • Ana María García-López,
  • Joaquina María García-Martín,
  • Isabel M. Liberal,
  • Marta Rodríguez-Reyes,
  • Paloma Yáñez Serrano,
  • Ramón Casimiro-Soriguer,
  • Pablo Homet,
  • Raúl Ochoa-Hueso

摘要

Aims

Agriculture intensification, combined with the ongoing effects of climate change, has led to a critical decline in soil health and quality, impairing food production and ecosystem functioning. This highlights the need to promote environmentally friendly management practices that integrate the conservation of agricultural lands and local biodiversity. Regenerative agriculture offers a holistic approach and an integrated crop management strategy for the sustainable management of soils. It typically involves reducing tillage and agrochemical inputs while incorporating livestock, organic amendments, biofertilizers, cover crops, and crop rotations into food production systems.

Methods

In this study, we assessed the effects of a five-year regenerative farming model that included the application of self-produced biofertilizers on key soil attributes, including soil physicochemical properties, fertility, microbial enzymatic activity, and soil faunal communities. Using a chrono-sequence approach, we evaluated fields converted to regenerative management 1, 2, and 5 years prior to sampling, alongside conventional control plots.

Results

Regenerative management increased soil moisture and organic matter, while reducing electrical conductivity. Enzymatic activities, particularly leucine aminopeptidase and phosphatase, increased significantly across the conversion chrono-sequence. Faunal responses included a rise in mite abundance and enchytraeid worm populations after two years, followed by a shift in the fifth year toward dominance by larger arthropods such as insects, crustaceans, and millipedes.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that agroecological farming represents a promising alternative for improving the health and functioning of soils in horticultural crop systems, while also emphasizing the importance of developing strategies to overcome the negative effects associated with the initial stages of conversion.