o:4239 How Do Mixed Cover Crops (White Mustard + Oats) Contribute to Labile Carbon Pools in an Organic Cropping System in Serbia? en Abstract: Sustainable farming is one of the priority goals of the “4 per 1000” concept with regard to the preservation of soil fertility and carbon sequestration. This paper presents a study on the use of a mixture of cover crops of self-grown oats (Avena sativa L.) and sown white mustard (Sinapis alba L.) in organic farming under the agroecological conditions of Serbia. The main objective was to identify sensitive carbon pools (microbial carbon and nitrogen, basal respiration and a number of specific groups of soil microorganisms) in organic farming with and without cover crops. The inclusion of a mixture of white mustard and self-grown oats as a cover crop led to a significantly increased biogenity of the soil compared to a control after only a few years of investigation. The number of microorganisms, soil respiration and microbial biomass carbon were significantly higher in the cover crop treatment compared to the control soil on an organic farm in Serbia. This is the first study in Serbia to investigate the effect of self-grown oats as a cover crop. Further research will incorporate a wider range of variables and factors in order to develop a sustainable and effective site-specific system for organic crop production in Serbia. organic farming; soil respiration; microorganisms 1552099 10.3390/plants13071020 2024-04-03T11:31:11.371Z 44 no 46 Vladan Ugrenovic Institute of Soil Science 0000-0001-6642-8235 46 Vladimir Filipovic 46 Vladimir Miladinovic 0000-0001-7394-0173 46 Divna Simic 46 Snežana Jankovic 46 Sladjan Stankovic 46 Elmira Saljnikov Institute of Soil Science 0000-0002-6497-2066 application/pdf 1776922 https://unilib.phaidrabg.rs/o:4239 no yes 1 70 92000001 71A05 Plants 2024