scholarly journals Effects of No-Tillage and Conventional Tillage on Physical and Hydraulic Properties of Fine Textured Soils under Winter Wheat

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirko Castellini ◽  
Francesco Fornaro ◽  
Pasquale Garofalo ◽  
Luisa Giglio ◽  
Michele Rinaldi ◽  
...  

The conversion from conventional tillage (CT) to no-tillage (NT) of the soil is often suggested for positive long-term effects on several physical and hydraulic soil properties. In fact, although shortly after the conversion a worsening of the soil may occur, this transition should evolve in a progressive improvement of soil properties. Therefore, investigations aiming at evaluating the effects of NT on porous media are advisable, since such information may be relevant to better address the farmers’ choices to this specific soil conservation management strategy. In this investigation, innovative and standard methods were applied to compare CT and NT on two farms where the conversion took place 6 or 24 years ago, respectively. Regardless of the investigated farm, results showed negligible differences in cumulative infiltration or infiltration rate, soil sorptivity, saturated hydraulic conductivity, conductive pores size, or hydraulic conductivity functions. Since relatively small discrepancies were also highlighted in terms of bulk density or soil organic carbon, it was possible to conclude that NT did not have a negative impact on the main physical and hydraulic properties of investigated clay soils. However, a significantly higher number of small pores was detected under long-term NT compared to CT, so we concluded that the former soil was a more conductive pore system, i.e., consisting of numerous relatively smaller pores but continuous and better interconnected. Based on measured capacity-based indicators (macroporosity, air capacity, relative field capacity, plant available water capacity), NT always showed a more appropriate proportion of water and air in the soil.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Márton Dencső ◽  
Ágota Horel ◽  
Zsófia Bakacsi ◽  
Eszter Tóth

<p>Tillage practices influence soil CO<sub>2</sub> emissions, hence many research investigate the long-term effects of conservation and conventional tillage methods e.g. ploughing and no-tillage on soil greenhouse gas emission.</p><p>The experiment site is an 18-years-old long-term tillage trial established on chernozem soil. During 2020, we took weekly CO<sub>2 </sub>emission measurements in the mouldboard ploughing (MP), no-tillage (NT), and shallow cultivation (SC) treatments Tillage depth was 26-30 cm, 12-16 cm and 0 cm in the cases of MP, SC and NT respectively. The experiment was under wither oat cultivation.</p><p>We investigated the similarity in the CO<sub>2</sub> emission trends of SC to MP or NT treatments. Besides CO<sub>2</sub> emission measurements, we also monitored environmental parameters such as soil temperature (Ts) and soil water content (SWC) in each treatment.</p><p>During the investigated year (2020 January - December) SC had higher annual mean CO<sub>2</sub> emission (0.115±0.083 mg m<sup>-2</sup> s<sup>-1</sup>) compared to MP (0.099±0.089 mg m<sup>-2</sup> s<sup>-1</sup>) and lower compared to NT (0.119±0.100 mg m<sup>-2</sup> s<sup>-1</sup>). The difference of the CO<sub>2</sub> emissions was significant between SC and MP (p<0.05); however, it was not significant between SC and NT (p>0.05) treatments. The Ts dependency of CO<sub>2</sub> emission was moderate in all treatments. CO<sub>2</sub> emissions were moderately depended on SWC in MP and SC, and there was no correlation between these parameters in NT.</p><p>The annual mean CO<sub>2</sub> emission of the SC treatment was more similar to the NT, than to the MP treatment.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Abdel-Aal M. H.

A field experiment was carried out during the early summer seasons of 2018, at Agricultural Research Centre (ARC) Giza, Egypt. This study aims to examine the effect of three tillage treatments under three different moisture contents on some soil properties and on maize crop production. The experiments included three moisture contents of (MC1, 27.2 %), (MC2, 15.4 %) and (MC3, 7.2 %); as well as three tillage treatments, no-tillage control (NT), minimum tillage (MT) and conventional tillage (CT). The experimental was laid out in split-split plot design with four replications. The results showed that, there was significant effect of tillage at different moisture levels on soil physical and chemical properties. It was also indicated that the effect of tillage practices was significantly on soil bulk density, total porosity, hydraulic conductivity and moisture constants, where the conventional tillage at soil moisture level 15.4% (MC2) helped in improving soil bulk density, hydraulic conductivity and total porosity. Soil organic C, cations exchange capacity CEC, available N, P and K were improved in the soil surface layer of NT and decreased with depth. Clod mean weight diameter of soil was improved with 15.4-% of soil moisture content regardless of tillage depth and enhanced root proliferation by increasing density roots compared with minimum and no tillage in maize plant. The grain yields of maize were improving more under conventional tillage at moisture content 15.4% compared with other treatments. It was found that plant height and roots value increased by using conventional tillage compared with other tillage treatments.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitta Szabó ◽  
Melanie Weynants ◽  
Tobias Weber

<p>We present improved European hydraulic pedotransfer functions (PTFs) which now use the machine learning algorithm random forest and include prediction uncertainties. The new PTFs (euptfv2) are an update of the previously published euptfv1 (Tóth et al., 2015). With the derived hydraulic PTFs soil hydraulic properties and van Genuchten-Mualem model parameters can be predicted from easily available soil properties. The updated PTFs perform significantly better than euptfv1 and are applicable for 32 predictor variables combinations. The uncertainties reflect uncertainties from the considered input data, predictors and the applied algorithm. The euptfv2 includes transfer functions to compute soil water content at saturation (0 cm matric potential head), field capacity (both -100 and -330 cm matric potential head) and wilting point (-15,000 cm matric potential head), plant available water content computed with field capacity at -100 and -330 cm matric potential head, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and Mualem-van Genuchten parameters of the moisture retention and hydraulic conductivity curves. The influence of predictor variables on predicted soil hydraulic properties is explored and suggestions to best predictor variables given.</p><p>The algorithms have been implemented in a web interface (https://ptfinterface.rissac.hu) and an R package (https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.3759442) to facilitate the use of the PTFs, where the PTFs’ selection is automated based on soil properties available for the predictions and required soil hydraulic property.</p><p>The new PTFs will be applied to derive soil hydraulic properties for field- and catchment- scale hydrological modelling in European case studies of the OPTAIN project (https://www.optain.eu/). Functional evaluation of the PTFs is performed under the iAqueduct research project.</p><p> </p><p>This research has been supported by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (grant no. KH124765), the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (grant no. BO/00088/18/4), and the German Research Foundation (grant no. SFB 1253/12017). OPTAIN is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Program for research and innovation under Grant Agreement No. 862756.</p>


1989 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. CHANG ◽  
C. W. LINDWALL

This study was conducted to compare the long-term (20 yr) effects of conventional tillage, minimum tillage and no-till on various soil-water related properties within the tilled layer (0–30 and 30–60 mm) and immediately below the tilled layer (90–120 mm) under a spring cereal-summerfallow rotation cropping system. Parameters measured included saturated hydraulic conductivity, saturation percentage, plant-available water-holding capacity, large pore porosity, bulk density, and infiltration rate of the soil. Tillage treatment effects on these soil properties in each of the four sampling periods were not significantly different. The confidence interval test showed some temporal changes in these soil physical properties, of which hydraulic conductivity was the most affected. In the summerfallow field, regardless of the previous cereal crops, the steady infiltration rate was significantly lower in the soil under conventional tillage than with that under no-till. The results indicate that the surface soil structure was most stable under no-till. In the fresh stubble field, the type of cereal crop had an effect on the infiltration rate of the soil. The mean infiltration rate was higher in the summerfallow field than in the fresh stubble field and also was higher in the fresh barley stubble than in the fresh wheat stubble. Except for infiltration rates, there is no significant advantage of one tillage method over the other with respect to the soil physical properties measured in this Brown Chernozemic clay loam soil. Key words: No-till, minimum tillage, hydraulic conductivity, bulk density, infiltration


2011 ◽  
Vol 57 (No. 4) ◽  
pp. 186-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ž. Videnović ◽  
M. Simić ◽  
J. Srdić ◽  
Z. Dumanović

The effects of three tillage systems: no-tillage (NT), reduced tillage (RT) and conventional tillage (CT), and three levels of fertilization (0, 258 and 516 kg/ha NPK (58:18:24)), on the maize yield during ten years (1999–2008) were analyzed on the chernozem soil type in Zemun Polje, Serbia. Statistical analyses showed significant effects of all three factors i.e., year, soil tillage and amount of fertilizers, and their interactions on the maize yield. The ten-year averages showed that the highest yields were observed with CT (10.61 t/ha), while the averages with RT and NT were lower (8.99 t/ha and 6.85 t/ha, respectively). The results of the influence of the amount of the applied fertilizers on maize yield showed that the lowest yield was in the zero level of fertilization 7.71 t/ha, while the yield was raised when the 258 kg/ha and 516 kg/ha NPK were applied (9.18 t/ha and 9.56 t/ha, respectively). Analyzing the influence of the soil tillage systems on maize production with respect to the amounts of applied fertilizers, this research revealed the benefits of CT under the presented agroecological conditions, irrespective of the level of applied fertilizer.


1996 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. H. Azooz ◽  
M. A. Arshad

Long-term tillage practices may affect crop growth, in part by changing soil hydraulic properties. The hypothesis that long-term no-till (NT) and conventional tillage (CT) practices affect soil infiltration and hydraulic conductivity was evaluated on silt loam and sandy loam soils (both Gray Luvisols). Ponded soil infiltration, water content and marric potential were measured in the field during 1992 and 1993. In most cases, the ponded soil infiltration rates (i) were significantly lower (P ≤ 0.05) under the CT than under the NT for both soils. Total volume of soil pores with radii < 14 μm (micropores) were significantly greater in NT than in CT. Differences in volume of soil pores with radii > 14 μm (macropores) between CT and NT were not significant. For the initial soil moisture conditions ranging from dry to field capacity, the i values were greater by 0 24 to 3 01 cm h−1 in NT than in CT for the silt loam and by 3.30 to 4.13 cm h−1 for the sandy loam. Saturated hydraulic conductivity values were significantly greater in NT (range from 0.36 to 3.0 cm h−1) than in CT (range from 0.26 to 1.06 cm h−1). Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity increased more with increasing matric potential (less negative) in NT than in CT. Long-term NT practices kept soil pore structure and continuity undisturbed, which contributed to significantly greater hydraulic conductivity and infiltration rates in NT than in CT for both soils. Key words: Infiltration, hydraulic conductivity, macroporosity, microporosity, tillage systems


Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1233
Author(s):  
Yuqiong Luo ◽  
Anas Iqbal ◽  
Liang He ◽  
Quan Zhao ◽  
Shangqin Wei ◽  
...  

Conservation farming practices, such as no-tillage and crop residue retention, have been proposed as sustainable management practices. However, it remains unclear how different tillage practices and rice straw retention affect the soil bacterial community (SBC) and the soil C/N ratio in the long term. The objective of this study was to evaluate changes in SBC composition and abundance and soil properties (e.g., carbon (C), nitrogen (N)) and determine their relationship to the soil C/N ratio under long-term no-tillage and straw retention techniques. This study investigates the effect of a long-term field experiment begun in 2008 and continued until 2019 to measure the response of the SBC and soil properties and their relation to different tillage practices, including no-tillage (NT), no-tillage and straw mulching (NT-SM), conventional tillage (CT), conventional tillage and straw mulching (CT-SM), and conventional tillage and straw retention (CT-SR). Soil samples were collected at depths of 0–5 cm (A), 5–10 cm (B), and 10–20 cm (C) after rice harvesting in the early and late growing seasons in 2018–2019. The Illumina MiSeq sequencing and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology was used to analyze changes in SBC diversity in soil and determined the changes in the soil C/N ratio and their relationship with the SBC diversity. The results showed that the Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Chloroflexi were the dominant phyla in the soil and accounted for 61.26%, 59.39%, and 55.62% of the total bacteria in the A, B, and C soil layers, respectively. The NT treatment increased SBC diversity, the number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs), and the proportion of Proteobacteria across the soil depths. Similarly, straw retention also significantly improved SBC diversity, soil organic C (SOC), total N (TN), soil C/N ratio, and the abundance of Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria in the soil layers A and B. The NT-SM treatment increased the SOC, TN, and soil C/N ratio by 30%, 21%, and 6% in 2018 and by 33, 25% and 7% in 2019, respectively, across the seasons and layers compared to the CT treatment. The NT-SM treatment had the highest soil bacterial diversity index, and the CT-SR treatment had the highest soil bacterial abundance and number of OTUs. The redundancy analysis showed that Acidobacteria were highly positively correlated with the soil C/N ratio. The results demonstrate that conservation tillage practices, i.e., no-tillage and straw retention, increase the SBC diversity and soil C/N ratio, thereby enhancing soil organic C and total N and changing soil microbial ecology. As a result, sustainable crop production and profitable agro-ecosystems are ensured.


2002 ◽  
Vol 46 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 183-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.S. Tan ◽  
C.F. Drury ◽  
W.D. Reynolds ◽  
J.D. Gaynor ◽  
T.Q. Zhang ◽  
...  

No-tillage (NT) is becoming increasingly attractive to farmers because it clearly reduces soil erosion and production costs relative to conventional tillage (CT). However, the impacts of no-tillage on the quantity and quality of tile drainage water are less well known. Accordingly, two adjacent field scale on-farm CT and NT sites were established to compare the impacts of the two tillage systems on tile drainage and NO3-N loss in tile drainage water. The effect of the two tillage systems on soil structure, hydraulic conductivity, and earthworm population were also investigated. The total NO3-N loss in tile drainage water over the 5-yr period (1995-1999) was 82.3 kg N ha−1 for the long-term NT site and 63.7 kg N ha−1 for the long-term CT site. The long-term NT site had 48% more tile drainage (6,975 kL ha−1) than the long-term CT site (4,716 kL ha−1). The average flow weighted mean (FWM) NO3-N concentration in tile drainage water over the 5-yr period was 11.8 mg N L−1 for the NT site and 13.5 mg N L−1 for the CT site. For both tillage systems, approximately 80% of tile drainage and NO3-N loss in tile drainage water occurred during the November to April non-growing season. Long-term NT improved wet aggregate stability, increased near-surface hydraulic conductivity and increased both the number and mass of earthworms relative to long-term CT. The greater tile drainage and NO3-N loss under NT were attributed to an increase in continuous soil macropores, as implied by greater hydraulic conductivity and greater numbers of earthworms.


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