Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment

Soil state in the 11^th year of three tillage systems application on a cambisol

Author(s):

Virginijus Feiza ^1*, Dalia Feiziene ², Grazina Kadziene ³, Sigitas Lazauskas ⁴, Irena Deveikyte ⁵, Alvyra Slepetiene ⁶, Vytautas Seibutis ⁷

Recieved Date: 2011-07-09, Accepted Date: 2011-10-08

Abstract:

Soil quality is widely used within discussions on sustainable agriculture. Two field experiments, one on loam and the other on sandy loam were established in 1999 according to the same trial design. Three tillage systems were investigated: conventional tillage (CT), reduced tillage (RT) and notillage (NT). The study goals were: 1) to assess the quality of arable soil layer of endocalcari-epihypogleyic cambisol in the 11^th year of successive conventional, reduced and no-tillage application, and 2) to use a soil quality indexing to assess the soil state under long-term different tillage. Soil physical and chemical properties depended on soil depth and tillage intensity. The best soil agrochemical quality (SQI_chem) in the 11^th year of field experiments within the 0-20 cm layer was registered in RT system on loam and in CT system on sandy loam. Long-term NT application increased soil agrochemical quality in the upper soil layer compared to CT or RT on both loam and sandy loam. In the 10-20 cm layer, the best SQI_chem was recorded in RT on loam, while there were no differences among tillage treatments on sandy loam. The SQI_chem remained high on loam and moderate on sandy loam. The best soil agrophysical quality (SQI_physic) on loam was recorded under conventional (CT) and reduced (RT) tillage. On sandy loam, the CT had an advantage over RT and NT to sustain SQI_physic. The highest total SQI (SQI_chem+ SQI_physic) on loam in both the 0-10 and 10-20 cm layers was under RT (SQI = 20; SQI = 17, respectively). On sandy loam, the reduction of soil disturbance intensity (CT→RT→NT) consistently and significantly reduced SQI in both soil layers. The increase in available P and K, organic N, organic C and total C contents in the 0-10 cm soil layer over 11 years of the experiments did not prevent deterioration of total SQI in NT. The main reason for total SQI reduction on NT background was unfavorable soil agrophysical conditions for crop growth.

Keywords:

Agrochemical properties, physical properties, soil quality indexing, long-term tillage, loam, sandy loam

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Journal: Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Year: 2011
Volume: 9
Issue: 3&4
Category: Environment
Pages: 1088-1095

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