Dual-scale micro-CT assessment of soil structure in a long-term fertilization experiment

Geoderma ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 204-205 ◽  
pp. 84-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Dal Ferro ◽  
P. Charrier ◽  
F. Morari
Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1036
Author(s):  
Sauro Simoni ◽  
Giovanni Caruso ◽  
Nadia Vignozzi ◽  
Riccardo Gucci ◽  
Giuseppe Valboa ◽  
...  

Edaphic arthropod communities provide valuable information about the prevailing status of soil quality to improve the functionality and long-term sustainability of soil management. The study aimed at evaluating the effect of plant and grass cover on the functional biodiversity and soil characteristics in a mature olive orchard (Olea europaea L.) managed for ten years by two conservation soil managements: natural grass cover (NC) and conservation tillage (CT). The trees under CT grew and yielded more than those under NC during the period of increasing yields (years 4–7) but not when they reached full production. Soil management did not affect the tree root density. Collecting samples underneath the canopy (UC) and in the inter-row space (IR), the edaphic environment was characterized by soil structure, hydrological properties, the concentration and storage of soil organic carbon pools and the distribution of microarthropod communities. The soil organic carbon pools (total and humified) were negatively affected by minimum tillage in IR, but not UC, without a loss in fruit and oil yield. The assemblages of microarthropods benefited, firstly, from the grass cover, secondly, from the canopy effect, and thirdly, from a soil structure ensuring a high air capacity and water storage. Feeding functional groups—hemiedaphic macrosaprophages, polyphages and predators—resulted in selecting the ecotonal microenvironment between the surface and edaphic habitat.


2018 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-103
Author(s):  
László Simon ◽  
Marianna Makádi ◽  
György Vincze ◽  
Zsuzsanna Uri ◽  
Katalin Irinyiné Oláh ◽  
...  

A small-plot long-term field fertilization experiment was set up in 2011 with willow (Salix triandra x Salix viminalis ’Inger’) grown as an energy crop in Nyíregyháza, Hungary. The brown forest soil was treated three times (in June 2011, May 2013, May 2016) with municipal biocompost (MBC), municipal sewage sludge compost (MSSC) or willow ash (WA), and twice (June 2011, May 2013) with rhyolite tuff (RT). In late May – early June 2016 urea (U) and sulphuric urea (SU) fertilizers were also applied to the soil as top-dressing (TD). These fertilizers and amendments were also applied to the soil in 2016 in the combinations; MBC+SU, RT+SU, WA+SU and MSSC+WA. All the treatments were repeated four times. In July 2016 the highest nitrogen concentrations in willow leaves were measured in the U (3.47 m/m%) and SU (3.01 m/m%) treatments, and these values were significantly higher than the control (2.46 m/m%). An excess of nitrogen considerably reduced the Zn uptake of the leaves, with values of 39.5 μg g-1 in the U treatment, 53.4 μg g-1 in the SU treatment, and 63.5 μg g-1 in the control. All other amendments or TDs, except for WA, enhanced the specific potassium concentrations in willow leaves compared to the control. No significant quantities of toxic elements (As, Ba, Cd, Pb) were transported from soil amendments or TDs to the willow leaves. In July 2016 the most intensive leaf chlorophyll fluorescence was observed in the MSSC and MSSC+WA treatments.


Author(s):  
L A Gabbarini ◽  
E Figuerola ◽  
J P Frene ◽  
N B Robledo ◽  
F M Ibarbalz ◽  
...  

Abstract The effects of tillage on soil structure, physiology, and microbiota structure were studied in a long-term field experiment, with side-to-side plots, established to compare effects of conventional tillage (CT) vs. no-till (NT) agriculture. After 27 years, part of the field under CT was switched to NT and vice versa. Soil texture, soil enzymatic profiles, and the prokaryotic community structure (16S rRNA genes amplicon sequencing) were analysed at two soil depths (0–5, 5–10 cm) in samples taken 6, 18, and 30 months after switching tillage practices. Soil enzymatic activities were higher in NT than CT, and enzymatic profiles responded to the changes much earlier than the overall prokaryotic community structure. Beta diversity measurements of the prokaryotic community indicated that the levels of stratification observed in long-term NT soils were already recovered in the new NT soils thirty months after switching from CT to NT. Bacteria and Archaea OTUs, which responded to NT were associated with coarse soil fraction, SOC and C cycle enzymes while CT responders were related to fine soil fractions and S cycle enzymes. This study showed the potential of managing the soil prokaryotic community and soil health through changes in agricultural management practices.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Rickard ◽  
Marcos Paradelo Perez ◽  
Aurelie Bacq-Labreuil ◽  
Andy Neal ◽  
Xiaoxian Zhang ◽  
...  

<p>Soil organic matter is associated with important biological and physical functions. There are many theories to interpret this association, as yet there is not a fully developed understanding linking soil properties to nutritional management in arable systems.</p><p>We used X-ray computed tomography to analyse soil structure at the core and aggregate scale on the Broadbalk long term experiment (Hertfordshire, England). Here we present results of the treatments that have been under continuous wheat for 175 years. Corresponding to treatments that the only difference between the treatments is the nutrient management regime, with the exception of the baseline, or ‘wilderness’ treatment in which the plot was left unmanaged and has returned to mature woodland since 1882. The other nutrient treatments correspond to inorganic fertiliser addition with and without phosphorus, farmyard manure, and no added nutrient.</p><p>At core scale (40 µm resolution) we capture macro pore structures that are responsible for convective flow, while the aggregate scale images (1.5 µm resolution) include structures responsible for retention of water by capillary forces.  Therefore, a comparison of images taken at the two resolutions 1.5 µm and 40 µm provides information on how soil partitions between drainage and storage of water, and therefore on the air water balance under different environmental contexts.</p><p>The results are presented as a state-space plot of simulated permeability vs. porosity for each treatment. We find that nutrient management resulted in two distinct states at aggregate scale corresponding to water storage potential. Inorganic nutrient management resulted in structures of lower porosity and lower simulated permeability. There was no significant difference between each treatment, or between these treatments and the treatment with no nutrient addition. By comparison, the wilderness and manure treatments had higher porosity and higher permeability, with no significant difference between them.</p><p>At core scale, the results are slightly different. Again, the inorganic nutrient management treatments had lower porosity and simulated permeability, with no significant difference between them, and between them and the treatment with no nutrient addition. However, the manure treatment had a significantly lower porosity and permeability than the wilderness treatment. We conclude that long-term cultivation with organic nutrient management results in a similar capacity for water storage and transport to roots than a wilderness control, but that long-term management using a purely inorganic nutrient regime results in a smaller capacity for water storage and a lower transport rate to roots. Organic inputs, roots and plant detritus ploughed into the soil after harvest had no significant impact. Infiltration potential is highest in the wilderness control, lower for the manure treatment, and lowest for the inorganic nutrient management treatment. Again, inputs of organic nutrients from plants had no significant impact. We interpret these findings in terms of a previously hypothesised self-organising feedback loop between microbial activity and soil structure.</p>


Author(s):  
Zhen Ye ◽  
Yubin Wu ◽  
Shuai Wang ◽  
Yang Zhang ◽  
Yanbing Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 939
Author(s):  
Qiang Chen ◽  
Xingyi Zhang ◽  
Li Sun ◽  
Jianhua Ren ◽  
Yaru Yuan ◽  
...  

Tillage practices are critical for sustaining soil quality necessary for successful crop growth and productivity, but there are only few studies for strip tillage (ST) in the Mollisols region of Northeast China at present. A long-term (≥10-year) study was carried out to investigate the influence of within the tilled row (IR) and between rows (BR) in ST (10-year), conventional tillage (CT, 14-year) and no tillage (NT, 14-year) treatments on soil physicochemical properties. Soil samples were taken in May of 2019 at 0–5, 5–10, 10–20 and 20–30 cm depths and used to analyze bulk density (BD), soil aggregate distribution and stability, and soil organic carbon (SOC). Meanwhile, our study also explored the differences in seed emergence, soil moisture, and temperature during the seed emergence period, and yield of maize (Zea mays L.) among the different treatments. Similar soil properties were observed between ST-BR and NT, which showed they had a significantly greater BD, >0.25 mm water stable aggregate content (WR0.25) (especially in the amount of >2 mm and 1–2 mm size proportion), aggregate stability, and SOC than ST-IR and CT-IR at a depth of 0–20 cm. By improving soil conditions of seedbed, ST-IR and CT-IR increased soil temperature above NT by 1.64 °C and 1.80 °C, respectively, and ST-IR had a slight greater soil moisture than CT-IR in the top 10 cm layer during the seed emergence period. Late maize seed emergence was observed NT in than ST-IR and CT-IR and the average annual yields in ST were slightly greater than NT and CT, but the differences were not significant. Our results also showed that CT-BR had a poor soil structure and lower SOC than other treatments at 0–30 cm depth. We conclude from these long-term experimental results that ST could improve soil water-heat conditions to promote seed germination, maintain soil structure, and increase the maize yield and it should be applied in the Mollisols region of Northeast China.


VCOT Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 03 (02) ◽  
pp. e77-e83
Author(s):  
Tjarda E. Reints Bok ◽  
Lucinda van Stee ◽  
Koen Willemsen ◽  
Martijn Beukers ◽  
Guy C.M. Grinwis ◽  
...  

AbstractThis study aimed to assess the long-term outcome and intervertebral fusion following surgical distraction and stabilization using an intervertebral cage and pedicle screw and rod fixation (PSRF) in a dog with severe degenerative lumbosacral stenosis (DLSS).Degenerative lumbosacral stenosis is a common disorder in large breed dogs and has a multifactorial origin. Surgical treatment by dorsal laminectomy and discectomy results in decompression of neural structures, but when distraction–fixation is applied, the ultimate goal is vertebral fusion. A 4-year-old male neutered Leonberger, presented with DLSS and pre-existent chronic discospondylitis, was treated by dorsal laminectomy, partial discectomy, curettage of the end plates, distraction with an intervertebral spacer (SynCage), and PSRF. At 26 months after surgery, the Helsinki pain score and neurological Griffith score were improved; however, the dog passed away shortly thereafter due to an unrelated disorder. The lumbosacral segment became available for computed tomography (CT), micro-CT and histopathology. On CT, bone volume through the largest hole of the cage was 91.0% and for compact bone 76.1%. Micro-CT and histopathology revealed vertebral fusion. Distraction–fixation using an intervertebral spacer and PSRF was well-accepted in this dog with severe DLSS, and the dog had a good clinical outcome with long-term follow-up. CT, micro-CT and histopathology showed evidence of vertebral fusion.


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