Effect of crop rotation, fertilisation and tillage on main soil properties and its water extractable organic matter

Soil Research ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco De Mastro ◽  
Gennaro Brunetti ◽  
Andreina Traversa ◽  
Claudio Cocozza

The excessive use of fertilisers and frequent and deep tillage are not considered good agricultural practices because they increase production costs and reduce soil fertility. Water extractable organic matter (WEOM) is the fraction of soil organic matter responsible for nutrient transport and bioavailability. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of a 2-year rotation of faba bean–wheat, cultivated for a decade, and the agricultural practices (conventional vs no tillage, and fertilisation vs no fertilisation) on selected soil parameters and WEOM quality. Results showed that the soil organic carbon (SOC) and the total nitrogen (TN) content increased after the wheat and faba bean, respectively. Plots managed with conventional tillage showed WEOM with higher OC content with respect to no-tillage plots. A higher WEOM OC content was observed also in the fertilised plots. The WEOM of fertilised and faba bean plots was derived from decomposition of native SOC, but the microbial community decomposition was the main origin of WEOM after wheat.

2020 ◽  
Vol 150 ◽  
pp. 03010
Author(s):  
Hassnae Maher ◽  
Rachid Moussadek ◽  
Abdelmjid Zouahri ◽  
Ahmed Douaik ◽  
Houria Dakak ◽  
...  

In Morocco, agriculture is an important sector of the economy, accounting for 15 to 20% of Gross Domestic Product. However, it has faced several challenges: intensive tillage of land that has accelerated water erosion, seriously threatening water and soil potential, low plant cover density and misuse of traditional agricultural practices, causing a decrease in organic matter levels and destroying aggregate stability. Climate change is making water and soil management in agriculture more and more complicated. The major challenge for Moroccan agriculture is to increase agricultural production while preserving natural resources. The objective of our study is to evaluate the effect of no tillage (NT) on the physico- chemical properties of soil in the El Koudia experimental station, Rabat, Morocco. The crop is durum wheat, Arrehane variety. Soil samples are pre-dried, ground and screened to 0.2mm for organic matter (OM) analysis and 2mm for the remainder of the analyses. Plugs, canned, are then sintered, screened and dried for structural stability tests. The results show that no tillage (NT) favours the accumulation of surface OM, particularly at the 0-5cm horizon unlike conventional tillage (CT). The NT promotes structural stability, with a mean weight diameter (MWD) = 0.94mm for the NT compared to 0.83mm for the CT. These results show that soils ploughed in CT are more exposed to erosion degradation than soils not ploughed (NT). In addition, NT preserves soil moisture and promotes additional water retention of 5 to 10%.


2021 ◽  
Vol 777 ◽  
pp. 146127
Author(s):  
Peng Zhang ◽  
Chun Cao ◽  
Ying-Hui Wang ◽  
Kai Yu ◽  
Chongxuan Liu ◽  
...  

PLoS ONE ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. e84988 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Devine ◽  
Daniel Markewitz ◽  
Paul Hendrix ◽  
David Coleman

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (No. 2) ◽  
pp. 67-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vítězslav Vlček ◽  
Miroslav Pohanka

The negative effects of the current agricultural practices include erosion, acidification, loss of soil organic matter (dehumification), loss of soil structure, soil contamination by risky elements, reduction of biological diversity and land use for non-agricultural purposes. All these effects are a huge risk to the further development of soil quality from an agronomic point of view and its resilience to projected climate change. Organic matter has a crucial role in it. Relatively significant correlations with the quality or the health of soil parameters and the soil organic matter or some fraction of the soil organic matter have been found. In particular, Ctot, Cox, humic and fulvic acids, the C/N ratio, and glomalin. Our work was focused on glomalin, a glycoprotein produced by the hyphae and spores of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which we classify as Glomeromycota. Arbuscular mycorrhiza, and its molecular pathways, is not a well understood phenomenon. It appears that many proteins are involved in the arbuscular mycorrhiza from which glomalin is probably one of the most significant. This protein is also responsible for the unique chemical and physical properties of soils and has an ecological and economical relevance in this sense and it is a real product of the mycorrhiza. Glomalin is very resistant to destruction (recalcitrant) and difficult to dissolve in water. Its extraction requires specific conditions: high temperature (121°C) and a citrate buffer with a neutral or alkaline pH. Due to these properties, glomalin (or its fractions) are very stable compounds that protect the soil aggregate surface. In this review, the actual literature has been researched and the importance of glomalin is discussed.  


ael ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 160023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhongqi He ◽  
Mingchu Zhang ◽  
Aiqin Zhao ◽  
O. Modesto Olanya ◽  
Robert P. Larkin ◽  
...  

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