Effects of Agricultural Practices on the Physical, Chemical and Biological Properties of Soils: Part III—Chemical Degradation of Soil as the Result of the Use of Mineral Fertilizers and Pesticides: Aspects of Soil Quality Evaluation

1987 ◽  
pp. 211-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. A. M. De Haan
Keyword(s):  
Soil Quality ◽  
Quality Evaluation ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Biological Properties ◽  
Chemical Degradation ◽  
Mineral Fertilizers ◽  
Physical Chemical

Soil quality and profitability of biodynamic and conventional farming systems: A review

1995 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. Reganold
Keyword(s):  
Soil Quality ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Biological Properties ◽  
Conventional Farming ◽  
Conventional Agriculture ◽  
Net Returns ◽  
Physical Chemical ◽  
Crop Root

AbstractBiodynamic and organic farming are similar in that both are ecologically oriented and do not use chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The main difference is that biodynamic farmers add eight specific amendments, called preparations, to their soils, crops, and composts. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in biodynamic farming practices and systems because they show potential for mitigating some detrimental effects of chemical-dependent conventional agriculture. Only a few studies examining biodynamic methods or comparing biodynamic farming with other farming systems have been published in the refereed scientific literature, especially in English. This paper summarizes data from previous studies, both published and unpublished (theses), that have compared biodynamic and conventional farming systems with respect to soil quality or profitability. These studies have shown that the biodynamic farming systems generally have better soil quality, lower crop yields, and equal or higher net returns per hectare than their conventional counterparts. Two studies that included organic management treatments with and without the preparations showed that the preparations improved biological soil properties and increased crop root growth. However, more research is needed to determine whether the preparations affect soil physical, chemical, and biological properties and crop growth and, if so, their mode of action.

The need for a soil quality index: Local and regional perspectives

1992 ◽  
Vol 7 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 12-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Granatstein ◽  
D.F. Bezdicek
Keyword(s):  
Soil Quality ◽  
Rice Paddy ◽  
Biological Properties ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Soil Quality Index ◽  
Wheat Field ◽  
Health Goals ◽  
Physical Chemical ◽  
Suitable Reference

AbstractOur knowledge of soil is based primarily on quantitative analysis of isolated physical, chemical, and biological properties. However, the interaction of these quantitative aspects determines soil quality. Integrative tools are needed by researchers, farmers, regulators, and others to evaluate changes in soil quality from human activity at a local and global level. An index needs to be adaptable to local or regional conditions. For example, the parameters needed to determine changes in soil quality may differ between a semi-arid wheat field and a rice paddy. Suitable reference points and optimum ranges are needed for soil quality attributes. The present challenge is to integrate a suite of soiltests into a meaningful index that correlates with productivity, environmental, and health goals.

scholarly journals Effects of Biochar Amendment on Soil Problems and Improving Rice Production under Salinity Conditions

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gulaqa Aqa Anwari ◽  
Ajmal Mandozai ◽  
Jin Feng
Keyword(s):  
Soil Quality ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Anthropogenic Pollution ◽  
Biological Properties ◽  
Rice Production ◽  
Soil Productivity ◽  
Sodic Soils ◽  
Biochar Amendment ◽  
Properties Of Soil

Soil with poor physio-chemical and biological properties prevent plant growth. These poor characteristics may be due to soil creation processes, but also include largely inappropriate agricultural practices and/or anthropogenic pollution. During the last 4 decades, the world has lost one-third of its cropland due to pollution and erosion. Therefore, a series of operations is required to improve and recover the soil. Biochar is a new multifunctional carbon material extensively used as a modifier to improve soil quality and crop production. Previous studies have discussed the properties of biochar with varying soil pollutants and their effects on soil productivity and carbon sequestration. Comparatively, little attention has been paid to the effects of biochar application on rice growth in the problem of soils, especially in the saline-sodic soils. A comprehensive review of the literature with a high focusing on the effects of biochar application on problem soils and rice-growing under salinity conditions is needed. The present review gives an overview of the soil's problem, biochar amendment effects on physicochemical properties of soil, and how the biochar amendment could interact in soil microbes and root with remediation under salinity conditions for improving rice productivity. The findings of this review showed that biochar application can improve soil quality, reduce soil's problem and increase rice production under salinity conditions. It is anticipated that further researches on the biochar amendment will increase our understanding of the interactions of biochar with soil components, accelerate our attempts on soil remediation, and improve rice production under salinity conditions.

scholarly journals Role of Conservation Agriculture for Sustaining Soil Quality and Improving Crop Productivity- A Review

2020 ◽  
pp. 44-54
Author(s):  
Tanveer Ahmad Ahngar ◽  
Zahida Rashid ◽  
Raies Ahmad Bhat ◽  
Waseem Raja ◽  
Sadaf Iqbal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Quality ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Cropping System ◽  
Conservation Agriculture ◽  
Crop Productivity ◽  
Conventional Tillage ◽  
Biological Properties ◽  
Mineral N

Intensive agriculture and excessive use of external inputs are leading to degradation of soil and water resources and negatively affecting agricultural production. This review article aims to determine the role of conservation agriculture for sustaining soil quality and improving crop productivity. Conservation Agriculture (CA) practices cause prominent changes in physical, chemical and biological properties of soil compared to conventional agricultural practices. The improved bio-physico-chemical qualities of soil in turn, affect the ecosystem services and sustainability of crop production system through counterbalancing the climate variability with the help of increasing sink for carbon sequestration within the soil. There was significant interaction of tillage and cropping system on mineral nitrogen measured at the beginning of the cropping system. Mineral N contents were higher with manual tillage and no tillage systems compared with conventional tillage in the soybean maize rotation system. Conservation agriculture also helps in improving the crop production in a sustainable way hence there is an intense need of conservation agriculture which will not only meet the present and future demand of ever increasing population, but also seize degradation of environmental quality.

Carbon cycle related indicators better describe soil quality compared to total organic carbon content

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro De Feudis ◽  
Gloria Falsone ◽  
Gian Marco Salani ◽  
Enrico Mistri ◽  
Valentina Brombin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Biomass ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Quality ◽  
Quality Evaluation ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Stress Conditions ◽  
Soil Microbiome ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Lower Percentage ◽  
Soil Processes

<p>Soil organic carbon (SOC) content is the major indicator used for soil quality evaluation because provides several ecosystem functions. However, SOC content does not allow to understand the soil potential to deliver the key ecosystem functions because most of soil processes are linked to soil biota. This research aimed to demonstrate the importance of soil indicators related to the SOC cycle rather than SOC content for soil quality evaluation. To reach this goal, three farms characterized by diverse soil types (Fluvisol and Cambisol) were selected in the Po plain of Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy. Moreover, different agricultural practices were performed: three-year-old pear trees using conventional management for Maccanti farm (MAC), 10-year pear orchard with integrated management for Zani (ZAN) and 10-year peach orchard with organic management for Biondi (BIO). MAC is located in ancient reclamation area, where Fluvisols are enriched of peat and organic matter. In each farm, soil samples from 0–15 (hereafter called topsoil) and 15–30 cm (hereafter called subsoil) depth were collected and analysed for the contents of SOC, labile organic carbon (Clab), fulvic acids, humic acids, humin and microbial biomass–C (Cmic), and for microbial respiration (Resp). In order to evaluate the soil processes related to C cycle, the humification rate (HR), metabolic quotient (qMET) and microbial quotient (qMIC) were calculated. MAC soil showed the highest SOC content without differences between topsoil and subsoil, due to ancient reclamation and agricultural management. BIO and ZAN showed similar SOC contents and it was higher in the topsoil than in subsoil due to grassy turf. Compared to BIO and ZAN, MAC soil showed a higher amount of Clab, and SOC was composed by a lower percentage of stable organic carbon (humin). Despite the higher Clab concentration, which is an easily available C source for microbes, no differences of Resp were observed among the sites, and MAC showed the lowest Cmic content. These data would indicate the presence in MAC of stress conditions which do not allow the growth of microbial biomass. The occurrence of stress conditions is clearly showed by the lowest qMET indicating how the conventional agricultural practices in peaty Fluvisol negatively affect the carbon use efficiency of microbial biomass. As a consequence, these stress conditions do not allow the C stabilization as suggested by the lowest qMIC. Further, the low C stabilization processes are highlighted by the highest HR. Conversely, despite the lowest content of Clab, BIO soil showed the lowest qMET and the highest qMIC suggesting how organic managements tend to improve the soil quality. Hence, the present study highlighted the importance of indicators linked to soil microbiome for soil quality evaluation in order to preserve its ecosystem functions. Indeed, organic carbon rich soils as those of MAC would indicate high quality soils but, because of the highly impacting practices, they showed stress conditions when the indicators linked to soil microbiome are taken in account. Therefore, if these indicators are not considered for soil quality evaluation, several fields used for agricultural purposes could become degraded.</p>

Soybean productivity depending on the cultivation technology on ordinary chernozem in the Central Ciscaucasia zone

2021 ◽  
pp. 60-73
Author(s):  
V. K. Dridiger ◽  
R. G. Gadzhiumarov
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Economic Assessment ◽  
Fertilizer Application ◽  
Biological Properties ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Ordinary Chernozem ◽  
Mineral Fertilizers ◽  
Soybean Seeds ◽  
Cultivation Technology ◽  
The Cost

The existing technology of soybean cultivation with mandatory tillage is quite expensive, when up to 30 % or more of the total costs are spent on preparing the soil for sowing, and most of them are spent on fuel and lubricants, which are becoming more expensive every year. The purpose of the research is to determine the effect of the technology recommended by scientific institutions and the technology of soybean cultivation without tillage with the introduction of various doses of mineral fertilizers on its yield and agrophysical properties of ordinary chernozem in the zone of unstable moisture in the Central Ciscaucasia. The influence of soybean cultivation technology without tillage, depending on the doses of mineral fertilizers, on its growth, development, yield and agrophysical, chemical and biological properties of ordinary chernozem has been studied, and an economic assessment of the studied agricultural practices has been given. Cultivation technologies and applied fertilizers did not significantly affect the quality of soybean seeds. The oil content in soybean seeds for both technologies and all doses of fertilizer application on average over the years of research was in the range of 19,8–20,3 %, protein for the same variants of the experiment contained 41,3–41,7 %, and all differences in these indicators were not statistically significant. When cultivating soybeans using No-till technology the cost of purchasing and applying a continuous herbicide increases by 1280 rubles/ha or by 49,4 % in relation to the recommended technology. However, the recommended technology significantly increases production costs for the purchase of fuel and lubricants – by 3,276 rubles/ha or 232,0 %, the wage fund by 824 rubles/ha or 93,4 %, depreciation and repair of equipment by 891 rubles/ha or 47,0 %. Thus, the biggest economic efficiency has been obtained when using the technology of soybean cultivation without tillage and without applying mineral fertilizers.

A comparison of indexing methods to evaluate quality of soils: the role of soil microbiological properties

Soil Research ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 49 (8) ◽  
pp. 733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romina Romaniuk ◽  
Lidia Giuffré ◽  
Alejandro Costantini ◽  
Norberto Bartoloni ◽  
Paolo Nannipieri
Keyword(s):  
Soil Properties ◽  
Soil Quality ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Microbial Biomass Carbon ◽  
Phospholipid Fatty Acid ◽  
Biological Properties ◽  
Undisturbed Soil ◽  
Physical Chemical ◽  
Microbiological Properties

The study evaluates and compares two procedures for selecting soil quality indicators (used for the construction of soil quality indices, SQI) by using diverse chemical, physical, and biological properties, and evaluates the role of soil microbiological properties in the construction of SQI. Different soil environments were selected from an extensive agricultural production site in the rolling pampa, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The plots included an undisturbed soil, a grassland soil, and continuous tilled soils with four different surface horizon depths (25, 23, 19, and 14 cm). Various properties were measured, and a minimum dataset was chosen by principal component analysis (PCA) considering all measured soil properties together (procedure A), or the PCA was performed separately according to classification as physical, chemical, or biological soil properties (procedure B). The measured soil properties involved physical, chemical, and biochemical properties determined by standard protocols used in routine laboratory analysis (simple SQI, SSQI) or more laborious protocols to determine microbial community structure and function by phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) and catabolic response profile (CRP), respectively (complex SQI, CSQI). The selected properties were linearly normalised and integrated by the weight additive method to calculate SSQI A, SSQI B, CSQI A, and CSQI B indices. Two microbiological SQI (MSQI) were also calculated; MSQI 1 considered only biological properties according to the procedure used for calculating SQI; MSQI 2 was calculated by considering three selected microbiological parameters representing the size (microbial biomass carbon), activity (soil basal respiration), and functional diversity (evenness, determined by CRP) of the microbial communities. All of the constructed indices show the same differences among the study sites. The inclusion of CRP and PLFA data in the indices slightly increased, or did not increase, the index sensitivity. Microbiological indices had the same sensitivity as the indices integrated by physical, chemical, and biological properties. An evaluation of the SQI constructed by both procedures found no difference in sensitivity. However, SQI constructed by procedure B allowed evaluation of the effects of management practices on physical, chemical, and biological soil properties.

scholarly journals Effects of Annual and Perennial Alleyway Cover Crops on Physical, Chemical, and Biological Properties of Soil Quality in Pacific Northwest Red Raspberry

HortScience ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 344-352
Author(s):  
Rachel E. Rudolph ◽  
Lisa W. DeVetter ◽  
Inga A. Zasada ◽  
Cedar Hesse
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Soil Quality ◽  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Cover Crops ◽  
Cover Crop ◽  
Resource Competition ◽  
Biological Properties ◽  
Red Raspberry ◽  
Physical Chemical ◽  
Properties Of Soil

Cover crops can lessen soil erosion and compaction, improve water infiltration, enhance nutrient availability, suppress weeds, and assist with pest management. However, cover crops are not commonly used in alleyways of established red raspberry (Rubus idaeus) fields in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Rather, the space between red raspberry beds is repeatedly cultivated and the soil is kept bare, which has detrimental effects on soil quality. Adoption of alleyway cover crops is limited because red raspberry growers are concerned about resource competition between a cover crop and red raspberry crop. A 2-year study was conducted in an established ‘Meeker’ red raspberry field in northwest Washington to evaluate the effects of eight annually seeded alleyway cover crops (cultivars of wheat, cereal rye, triticale, oat, and ryegrass), one perennial ryegrass alleyway cover crop, mowed weed vegetation, and the industry standard of cultivated bare soil (Till) on the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil quality in alleyways and raised beds. This included evaluating soil bulk density (Db), compaction, organic matter, pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC), macro- and micronutrients, and bacterial and fungal community structure; red raspberry yield and fruit quality were also evaluated. Although there were statistically significant differences among treatments across sampling dates for CEC, there were no consistent trends. Alleyways planted with the perennial ryegrass mix had the lowest mean Db 6 and 24 months after seeding. Tilled alleyways had the lowest Db 12 and 18 months into the study. Red raspberry grown adjacent to Till did not result in a significantly higher estimated yield or fruit total soluble solids than raspberry grown adjacent to cover crops in either year of the experiment. Differences in microbial community structure were observed among seasons rather than treatments. These results do not demonstrate significant effects of alleyway cover crops on red raspberry productivity when applied to established fields. The potential benefits of alleyway cover cropping on soil quality may outweigh any concerns regarding resource competition. Changes in soil quality are often difficult to quantify and require long-term study.

scholarly journals DETERMINATION OF SOIL QUALITY AS A FOUNDATION OF SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT FOR CHILLI IN THE AGROFORESTRY SYSTEM BASED ON COCONUTS IN SANDY SOIL OF BUGEL BEACH

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Dina Ruslanjari ◽  
Taufan Alam
Keyword(s):  
Soil Quality ◽  
Sandy Soil ◽  
Block Design ◽  
Biological Properties ◽  
Agroforestry System ◽  
P Availability ◽  
Total Quality ◽  
Physical Chemical ◽  
Biological Form ◽  
Total P

The quality of soil cannot be measured directly, in which indicators need to be arbitrated of physical, chemical and biological properties, all of those affect the character of soil. The objective of this study was to identify the relationship between factors of soil quality and to review the effect of soil quality towards chili production. The exploration was done at Bugel Beach, Panjatan Sub-District, Kulonprogo, and DIY. Methods that were used in this study were Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) single factor. The factors was divided into initial agroforestry zone (shade intensity 0-30%), middle (shade intensity 31-60%) and final (shade intensity >60%) based on coconuts that was present at the location of sandy soil of Bugel Beach. Data collection was in physical, chemical, and biological form also in chili production. Data analyses were ANOVA with 5% LSD test, Structural Equitation Modelling (SEM), Factor Analysis and Stepwise Regression. The result of this study showed that initial agroforestry phase had the highest chilli production which followed by middle agroforestry and final agroforestry phase. SEM result showed that biological characteristic of soil in general directly affect the chili production and an interaction was evidence between physical and chemical characteristics of the soil. Two sets of the factors were found in factor I (BV, soil moisture, permeability, pH H2O, C-Organic, KPK, N-total, P-total, P-availability, K-total, K-dd, Ca-dd, mg-dd, Na-dd and total of microbes) and factor II (microbial and respiration total). Quality factor which effected chili production was the amount of total microbes.

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