Long-term rotation and tillage effects on soil structure and crop yield

This research was instigated by the fact that during the last decade annually repeated shallow disk tillage on the same field became frequent practice in Hungary. In order to study the changes of soil condition associated with disk tillage and to assess it is consequences, long-term tillage field experiments with different levels of nutrients were set up in 1991 (A) and in 1994 (B) on Chromic Luvisol at Gödöllö. The effects of disk tillage (D) and disk tillage combined with loosening (LD) on soil condition, on yield of maize and winter wheat, and on weed infestation were examined. The evaluation of soil condition measured by cone index and bulk density indicated that use of disking annually resulted in a dense soil layer below the disking depth (diskpan-compaction). It was found, that soil condition deteriorated by diskpan-compaction decreased the yield of maize significantly by 20 and 42% (w/w), and that of wheat by 13 and 15% (w/w) when compared to soils with no diskpan-compaction. Averaged over seven years, and three fertilizer levels, the cover % of the total, grass and perennial weeds on loosened soils were 73, 69 and 65% of soils contained diskpan-compaction.

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Effect of Long-Term Soil Management Practices on Tree Growth, Yield and Soil Biodiversity in a High-Density Olive Agro-Ecosystem

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11061036 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 1036

Author(s):

Sauro Simoni ◽

Giovanni Caruso ◽

Nadia Vignozzi ◽

Riccardo Gucci ◽

Giuseppe Valboa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Organic Carbon ◽

Soil Organic Carbon ◽

Soil Structure ◽

Soil Management ◽

Carbon Pools ◽

Grass Cover ◽

Soil Biodiversity ◽

Canopy Effect ◽

Soil Organic Carbon Pools

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.

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Changes in Bacterial and Fungal Soil Communities in Long-Term Organic Cropping Systems

Agriculture ◽

10.3390/agriculture11050445 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

pp. 445

Author(s):

Jessica Cuartero ◽

Onurcan Özbolat ◽

Virginia Sánchez-Navarro ◽

Marcos Egea-Cortines ◽

Raúl Zornoza ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Microbial Community ◽

Crop Yield ◽

Soil Microbial Community ◽

Cropping Systems ◽

Sequencing Analysis ◽

Soil Microbial Community Structure ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Network Analyses ◽

Organic Cultivation

Long-term organic farming aims to reduce synthetic fertilizer and pesticide use in order to sustainably produce and improve soil quality. To do this, there is a need for more information about the soil microbial community, which plays a key role in a sustainable agriculture. In this paper, we assessed the long-term effects of two organic and one conventional cropping systems on the soil microbial community structure using high-throughput sequencing analysis, as well as the link between these communities and the changes in the soil properties and crop yield. The results showed that the crop yield was similar among the three cropping systems. The microbial community changed according to cropping system. Organic cultivation with manure compost and compost tea (Org_C) showed a change in the bacterial community associated with an improved soil carbon and nutrient content. A linear discriminant analysis effect size showed different bacteria and fungi as key microorganisms for each of the three different cropping systems, for conventional systems (Conv), different microorganisms such as Nesterenkonia, Galbibacter, Gramella, Limnobacter, Pseudoalteromonas, Pantoe, and Sporobolomyces were associated with pesticides, while for Org_C and organic cultivation with manure (Org_M), other types of microorganisms were associated with organic amendments with different functions, which, in some cases, reduce soil borne pathogens. However, further investigations such as functional approaches or network analyses are need to better understand the mechanisms behind this behavior.

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Impacts of switching tillage to no-tillage and vice versa on soil structure, enzyme activities, and prokaryotic community profiles in Argentinean semi-arid soils

FEMS Microbiology Ecology ◽

10.1093/femsec/fiab025 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

L A Gabbarini ◽

E Figuerola ◽

J P Frene ◽

N B Robledo ◽

F M Ibarbalz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Community Structure ◽

Soil Structure ◽

Management Practices ◽

Soil Health ◽

Amplicon Sequencing ◽

16S Rrna Genes ◽

Rrna Genes ◽

Prokaryotic Community ◽

C Cycle

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.

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Crop nutritional management affects soil structure and soil functions at different scales.

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10043 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

William Rickard ◽

Marcos Paradelo Perez ◽

Aurelie Bacq-Labreuil ◽

Andy Neal ◽

Xiaoxian Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Structure ◽

Nutrient Management ◽

Water Storage ◽

Nutrient Addition ◽

Inorganic Nutrient ◽

Nutritional Management ◽

Manure Treatment ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Lower Porosity

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.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 &#8216;wilderness&#8217; 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.At core scale (40 &#181;m resolution) we capture macro pore structures that are responsible for convective flow, while the aggregate scale images (1.5 &#181;m resolution) include structures responsible for retention of water by capillary forces.&#160; Therefore, a comparison of images taken at the two resolutions 1.5 &#181;m and 40 &#181;m provides information on how soil partitions between drainage and storage of water, and therefore on the air water balance under different environmental contexts.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.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.

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Geostatistical analysis of crop yield maps in a long term no tillage system

Bragantia ◽

10.1590/s0006-87052010000500003 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 69 (suppl) ◽

pp. 9-18 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Osvaldo Guedes Filho ◽

Sidney Rosa Vieira ◽

Marcio Koiti Chiba ◽

Célia Regina Grego

Keyword(s):

Crop Yield ◽

Crop Yields ◽

Spherical Model ◽

Exponential Model ◽

Spatial And Temporal Variability ◽

No Tillage ◽

Yield Data ◽

The North ◽

Tillage System

It is known, for a long time, that crop yields are not uniform at the field. In some places, it is possible to distinguish sites with both low and high yields even within the same area. This work aimed to evaluate the spatial and temporal variability of some crop yields and to identify potential zones for site specific management in an area under no-tillage system for 23 years. Data were analyzed from a 3.42 ha long term experimental area at the Centro Experimental Central of the Instituto Agronômico, located in Campinas, Sao Paulo State, Brazil. The crop yield data evaluated included the following crops: soybean, maize, lablab and triticale, and all of them were cultivated since 1985 and sampled at a regular grid of 302 points. Data were normalized and analyzed using descriptive statistics and geostatistical tools in order to demonstrate and describe the structure of the spatial variability. All crop yields showed high variability. All of them also showed spatial dependence and were fitted to the spherical model, except for the yield of the maize in 1999 productivity which was fitted to the exponential model. The north part of the area presented repeated high values of productivity in some years. There was a positive cross correlation amongst the productivity values, especially for the maize crops.

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Long-term tillage and maize monoculture effects on a tropical Alfisol in western Nigeria. I. Crop yield and soil physical properties

Soil and Tillage Research ◽

10.1016/s0167-1987(97)00006-8 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 42 (3) ◽

pp. 145-160 ◽

Cited By ~ 62

Author(s):

R. Lal

Keyword(s):

Physical Properties ◽

Crop Yield ◽

Soil Physical Properties

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Crop Yield and Soil Fertility Status of Long-Term Rice-Rice-Wheat Cropping Systems

International Journal of Applied Sciences and Biotechnology ◽

10.3126/ijasbt.v5i1.17001 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 42-50

Author(s):

Nabin Rawal ◽

Rajan Ghimire ◽

Devraj Chalise

Keyword(s):

Soil Fertility ◽

Crop Yield ◽

Management Practices ◽

Crop Yields ◽

Oryza Sativa L ◽

Farmyard Manure ◽

Wheat Yield ◽

Nutrient Supply ◽

Available Phosphorus

Balanced nutrient supply is important for the sustainable crop production. We evaluated the effects of nutrient management practices on soil properties and crop yields in rice (Oryza sativa L.) - rice - wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) system in a long-term experiment established at National Wheat Research Program (NWRP), Bhairahawa, Nepal. The experiment was designed as a randomized complete block experiment with nine treatments and three replications. Treatments were applied as: T1- no nutrients added, T2- N added; T3- N and P added; T4- N and K added; T5- NPK added at recommended rate for all crops. Similarly, T6- only N added in rice and NPK in wheat at recommended rate; T7- half N; T8- half NP of recommended rate for both crops; and T9- farmyard manure (FYM) @10 Mg ha-1 for all crops in rotation. Results of the study revealed that rice and wheat yields were significantly greater under FYM than all other treatments. Treatments that did not receive P (T2, T3, T7, T8) and K (T2, T4) had considerably low wheat yield than treatments that received NPK (T5) and FYM (T9). The FYM lowered soil pH and improved soil organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen (TN), available phosphorus (P), and exchangeable potassium (K) contents than other treatments. Management practices that ensure nutrient supply can increase crop yield and improve soil fertility status.Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 5(1): 42-50

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Influence of Tillage on the Mollisols Physicochemical Properties, Seed Emergence and Yield of Maize in Northeast China

Agriculture ◽

10.3390/agriculture11100939 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (10) ◽

pp. 939

Author(s):

Qiang Chen ◽

Xingyi Zhang ◽

Li Sun ◽

Jianhua Ren ◽

Yaru Yuan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Moisture ◽

Physicochemical Properties ◽

Northeast China ◽

Soil Structure ◽

Aggregate Stability ◽

Maize Yield ◽

Conventional Tillage ◽

Soil Conditions ◽

Emergence Period

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.

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