Soil amendments and water-stable aggregation of a desurfaced Dark Brown Chernozem

1995 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haiguo Sun ◽  
Francis J. Larney ◽  
Murray S. Bullock

Aggregate stability, which influences soil resistance to wind and water erosion, can be improved by the application of organic amendments. In spring 1992, a desurfaced Dark Brown Chernozem in southern Alberta was amended with six animal manures, four crop residues and two rates of phosphate fertilizer, to determine their efficacy in restoring soil productivity. Eroded check (no amendment) and topsoil check (no desurfacing) treatments were left for comparison. One year later, wet aggregate stability at five levels of aggregate pre-wetting was determined. Aggregate stabilities of crop residue-amended soils were significantly higher (P < 0.01) than those of soils treated with animal manures or fertilizer/checks at all wetness levels. Significant (P < 0.01) quadratic response and plateau relationships between aggregate stability and soil water content showed that there was a threshold moisture content for maximum stability. With the onset of rainfall, aggregates on the crop residue-amended treatments would reach maximum stability sooner than those on the fertilizer/check treatments, thereby decreasing the potential for water erosion. Stability of air-dry aggregates showed weak positive relationships with organic and inorganic C. Amendment of eroded soils with crop residues is likely more effective in limiting erosion than amendment with animal manures or chemical fertilizers, at least in the first year after incorporation. Key words: Soil erosion, aggregate stability, animal manure, crop residue

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (03) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maninder Singh ◽  
Anita Jaswal ◽  
Arshdeep Singh

Crop residue management (CRM) through conservation agriculture can improve soil productivity and crop production by preserving soil organic matter (SOM) levels. Two major benefits of surface-residue management are improved organic matter (OM) near the soil surface and boosted nutrient cycling and preservation. Larger microbial biomass and activity near the soil surface act as a pool for nutrients desirable in crop production and enhance structural stability for increased infiltration. In addition to the altered nutrient distribution within the soil profile, changes also occur in the chemical and physical properties of the soil. Improved soil C sequestration through enhanced CRM is a cost-effective option for reducing agriculture's impact on the environment. Ideally, CRM practices should be selected to optimize crop yields with negligible adverse effects on the environment. Crop residues of common agricultural crops are chief resources, not only as sources of nutrients for subsequent crops but also for amended soil, water and air quality. Maintaining and managing crop residues in agriculture can be economically beneficial to many producers and more importantly to society. Improved residue management and reduced tillage practices should be encouraged because of their beneficial role in reducing soil degradation and increasing soil productivity. Thus, farmers have a responsibility in making management decisions that will enable them to optimize crop yields and minimize environmental impacts. Multi-disciplinary and integrated efforts by a wide variety of scientists are required to design the best site-specific systems for CRM practices to enhance agricultural productivity and sustainability while minimizing environmental impacts.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ed Gregorich ◽  
Mike Beare ◽  
Denis Curtin ◽  
Henry Janzen ◽  
Ben Ellert ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;Crop residues are an important resource for maintaining soil productivity. The decay of crop residues is linked to many ecosystem functions, affecting atmospheric CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;, nutrient release, microbial diversity, and soil organic matter quality. The rate of decay, in turn, is regulated by soil type, management, and environmental variables, some of which will be changing in the future. Our objective in this study was to evaluate effects of soil type, climate, residue placement on the decomposition and retention of residue-derived C. &lt;sup&gt;13&lt;/sup&gt;C-labelled barley straw was either placed at the surface or mixed to 10 cm in soils at four sites in Canada and one site in New Zealand representing different soil types and climates. Soils were collected periodically over 10 yr to determine &lt;sup&gt;13&lt;/sup&gt;C remaining. The loss of C from crop residues occurred quickly, most (70-75%) within the first 2 yrs but with only 5-10% remaining after 10 yrs. There were large losses of C from the mixed treatments within the first year, with 20-50% lost after 6 months over winter and 50-70 % lost after one year; after that decomposition slowed. Temperature was the single most important factor regulating the rate of residue decay. Thermal time, expressed as cumulative degree days, explained more of the variability in residue C recovered than time (in calendar years). Slower decay of surface-placed residues may be attributed to lower mean annual precipitation at those sites. Thermal time is a robust, consistent way of predicting crop residue decay rates (or C storage) for comparing C kinetics across sites with different soils and climates.&lt;/p&gt;


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajendra Shrestha ◽  
Nani Raut ◽  
Lwin Swe ◽  
Thida Tieng

Climate change has become apparent and been threatening more and more in Southeast Asia. Its impacts on agriculture and adaptation strategies at household level in farming systems areas are explored. The study focused on better understanding of climate change impacts and adaptation practices in four villages of Myanmar and Cambodia. Household questionnaire survey, focus group discussions and key informant interviews were used for data collection at household and community level supplemented with secondary data. Dry Zone farmers of Myanmar reported increase in crop diversity while in the Kampong Speu province in Cambodia, the number of rice growing farmers increased together with cultivation of other crops, such as cassava, palm fruit, sugarcane, mangoes, watermelons and vegetables. Farmers changed their cultivation practices as adaptation strategies in various ways: change in cropping calendar, crop varieties, machinery for cultivation practice, and change in area for cultivation. The shift in cropping calendar has occurred from two weeks to one month. Diverse strategies were reported in adapting to water scarcity in agriculture, such as system of rice intensification and water pumping. Farmers also adopted strategies for coping with declining soil productivity. These include animal manure application, compost making and application, crop rotation and crop residues retention. In particular, Dry Zone farmers prefer to apply animal manure rather than other practices because of its vast benefits, such as buffering capacity, effectiveness for plant growth and cheaper price. Cooperative actions are becoming increasingly needed when an individual could not afford adaptation strategies. However, barriers to adaptation strategies are to be reduced to promote climate adaptive practices in agriculture.


2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-138
Author(s):  
Imdad Ali Mahmood ◽  
Muhammad Arshad Ullah ◽  
Muhammad Jamil ◽  
Badar-uz- Zaman ◽  
Muhammad Suhaib ◽  
...  

A two years field study on rice was conducted to see the efficacy of gypsum to improve soil productivity with green manuring (GM) and crop residue (CR) incorporation and its impact on paddy yield of direct seeded rice and transplanted rice grown under saline-sodic soil..................................................Soil organic matter (SOM) intensity was also improved due to GM and CR incorporation particularly during the second year of crop harvest.


1992 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 181-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
James F. Parr ◽  
Sharon B. Hornick

AbstractAgricultural research conducted in the United States since establishment of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and Land-Grant University System in 1862 has shown that regular and proper additions of organic materials are very important for maintaining the tilth, fertility, and productivity of agricultural soils, protecting them from wind and water erosion, and preventing nutrient losses by runoff and leaching. Several millennia earlier, Roman agriculturists were advocating crop rotations, green manuring, composts, legumes, farmyard manures, crop residues, wood ashes, seaweed, and sewage wastes for supplying humus and nutrients to restore or enhance soil productivity. Even earlier, Asian farmers also used these practices to maintain healthy and productive soils. Today the most serious problem in U.S. agriculture and agriculture worldwide is the widespread degradation of agricultural soils through erosion and the consequential decline in productivity. In view of how much information is available on the benefits of organic recycling on agricultural lands, one wonders why we aren't doing a better job of protecting and conserving our land resource base. We discuss strategies for using organic resources more effectively to achieve a more sustainable agriculture for the future.


2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 66-70
Author(s):  
Dwl Putro Tejo Baskoro

A proper management of crop residue can increase crop production since it plays an important role on increasingwater availability. The effect of crop residue application on soil productivity depends on many factors. In this research. theeffect of placement of crop residue and irrigation on soil physical properties and crop production were examined under field condition on dry season. The result showed that crop residue placement had no significant effect on all parameters of measured soil physical properties both under dry condition (no irrigation) and wet condition (with irrigation). The effects ofcrop residue placements on maize growth were also not significant. Nevertheless there was a tendency that surface application produced higher biomass than buried application. On grain yield, however. the effect of crop residue placement was significant. especially under dry condition with no water applied Surface application of crop residues produced higher grain yield than buried application.


Author(s):  
V. Venkatramanan ◽  
Shachi Shah ◽  
Ashutosh Kumar Rai ◽  
Ram Prasad

The crop residue burning in India particularly North-western India is responsible for air pollution episodes and public health concerns; greenhouse gases emissions and radiation imbalance; and declining soil organic matter and soil productivity. The objectives of this paper are to estimate the crop residue burning and emissions from crop residue burning, to recommend interventions in crop residue management and to propose a crop residue management-bioeconomy model incorporating strategies to sustainably manage the crop residues through interventions that enable waste valorization, food and nutritional security, farmers’ livelihood and sustainable agricultural production system. A national inventory on crop residue burning including the pollutant species was prepared using the IPCC methodology. The crop types included for the estimation are cereals, pulses, oilseeds, sugarcane, cotton, jute and Mesta. The total amount of crop residues generated and burned for the year 2017–18 was estimated at 516 million tonnes and 116 million tonnes respectively. It is estimated that 116.3 Tg of crop residues burning released about 176.1 Tg of CO2, 10 Tg of CO, 313.9 Gg of CH4, 8.14 Gg of N2O, 151.14 Gg of NH3, 813.8 Gg of NMVOC, 453.4 Gg of PM2.5, and 935.9 Gg of PM10. The emission estimates can be a proxy to prepare the national level inventory of air pollutant species from crop residue burning. The crop residue management (CRM) demands a transition from the traditional zone of CRM to bioeconomy zone of CRM, wherein the interventions aim at the sustainability of agroecosystem. The proposed bioeconomy model has a four-pronged strategy that includes smart agriculture practices, waste bioeconomy involving aspirational principles of bioeconomy, capacity building of stakeholders’ and proactive government policy. Sustainable agricultural bioeconomy provides ample opportunities to reduce crop residue burning, increase farmers’ livelihood and decarbonize the agricultural production. India’s efforts and policies can provide lessons for other agricultural regions having similar environmental constraints.


2011 ◽  
Vol 91 (4) ◽  
pp. 627-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachid Moussadek ◽  
Rachid Mrabet ◽  
Patrick Zante ◽  
Jean Marie Lamachère ◽  
Yannick Pépin ◽  
...  

Moussadek, R., Mrabet, R., Zante, P., Lamachère, J. M., Pépin, Y., Le Bissonnais, Y., Ye, L., Verdoodt, A. and Van Ranst, E. 2011. Impact of tillage and residue management on the soil properties and water erosion of a Mediterranean Vertisol. Can. J. Soil Sci. 91: 627–635. Soil erosion research on Mediterranean Vertisols under no tillage systems (NT) is still scarce. A rainfall simulator was used on Vertisols to compare water runoff and soil loss in a conventional tillage system (CT), NT system with crop residues removed (NT0), and NT with 50% of crop residues returned to the soil surface (NT50). Runoff and soil loss rates were more than 50% lower under NT50 compared with NT0 and CT. Wet aggregate stability (MWD), soil organic matter (SOM) and soil bulk density (Da) were significantly higher under NT than under CT. A multiple regression analysis showed that when the soil was dry, Da explained 84 and 96% of the variation in water runoff and soil loss, respectively. Under wet soil conditions, MWD explained 47 and 69% of variation in water runoff and soil loss, respectively. Consequently, although NT systems improved soil quality (MWD, SOM) compared with the CT system, returning 50% of crop residues at the soil surface was mandatory under NT to protect these Vertisols against water erosion.


PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e4836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Pierre Hiel ◽  
Sophie Barbieux ◽  
Jérôme Pierreux ◽  
Claire Olivier ◽  
Guillaume Lobet ◽  
...  

Society is increasingly demanding a more sustainable management of agro-ecosystems in a context of climate change and an ever growing global population. The fate of crop residues is one of the important management aspects under debate, since it represents an unneglectable quantity of organic matter which can be kept in or removed from the agro-ecosystem. The topic of residue management is not new, but the need for global conclusion on the impact of crop residue management on the agro-ecosystem linked to local pedo-climatic conditions has become apparent with an increasing amount of studies showing a diversity of conclusions. This study specifically focusses on temperate climate and loamy soil using a seven-year data set. Between 2008 and 2016, we compared four contrasting residue management strategies differing in the amount of crop residues returned to the soil (incorporation vs. exportation of residues) and in the type of tillage (reduced tillage (10 cm depth) vs. conventional tillage (ploughing at 25 cm depth)) in a field experiment. We assessed the impact of the crop residue management on crop production (three crops—winter wheat, faba bean and maize—cultivated over six cropping seasons), soil organic carbon content, nitrate (${\mathrm{NO}}_{3}^{-}$), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) soil content and uptake by the crops. The main differences came primarily from the tillage practice and less from the restitution or removal of residues. All years and crops combined, conventional tillage resulted in a yield advantage of 3.4% as compared to reduced tillage, which can be partly explained by a lower germination rate observed under reduced tillage, especially during drier years. On average, only small differences were observed for total organic carbon (TOC) content of the soil, but reduced tillage resulted in a very clear stratification of TOC and also of P and K content as compared to conventional tillage. We observed no effect of residue management on the ${\mathrm{NO}}_{3}^{-}$ content, since the effect of fertilization dominated the effect of residue management. To confirm the results and enhance early tendencies, we believe that the experiment should be followed up in the future to observe whether more consistent changes in the whole agro-ecosystem functioning are present on the long term when managing residues with contrasted strategies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Wang ◽  
Xuehong Ma ◽  
Gang Wang ◽  
Guitong Li ◽  
Kun Zhu

AbstractSoil O2 dynamics have significant influences on greenhouse gas emissions during soil management practice. In this study, we deployed O2-specific planar optodes to visualize spatiotemporal distribution of O2 in soils treated with biological soil disinfestation (BSD). This study aimed to reveal the role of anoxia development on emissions of N2O and CH4 from soil amended with crop residues during BSD period. The incorporation of crop residues includes wheat straw only, wheat straw with biochar and early straw incorporation. The anoxia in soil developed very fast within 3 days, while the O2 in headspace decreased much slower and it became anaerobic after 5 days, which was significantly affected by straw and biochar additions. The N2O emissions were positively correlated with soil hypoxic fraction. The CH4 emissions were not significant until the anoxia dominated in both soil and headspace. The co-application of biochar with straw delayed the anoxia development and extended the hypoxic area in soil, resulting in lower emissions of N2O and CH4. Those results highlight that the soil O2 dynamic was the key variable triggering the N2O and CH4 productions. Therefore, detailed information of soil O2 availability could be highly beneficial for optimizing the strategies of organic amendments incorporation in the BSD technique.


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