Soil physical properties and earthworms as affected by soil tillage systems, straw and green manure management
Journal Title: ŽEMDIRBYSTĖ-AGRICULTURE - Year 2010, Vol 97, Issue 3
Abstract
Conventional tillage is not only high energy and labour consuming process, but it can also have a negative impact on soil properties. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of different tillage systems: deep conventional ploughing (CP) at 23–25 cm depth, shallow ploughing (SP) at 10–12cm depth, shallow loosening with a chisel cultivator and disc harrows (SL) at 8–10 cm depth, shallow loosening with a rotary cultivator (SR) at 5–6 cm depth, shallow green manure (red clover and timothy catch crop) incorporation with a rotary cultivator (GMR) at 5–6 cm depth and no-tillage (NT) on soil bulk density, penetration resistance, aggregate size distribution and earthworms. The experiment was carried out in two backgrounds: straw removed (N) or straw chopped and spread at harvesting (S). A long-term two-factorial field experiment was carried out at the experimental station of the Lithuanian University of Agriculture at 54º52′50 N latitude and 23º49′41 E longitude. The soil of the trial site was an Calc(ar)i-Endohypogleyic Luvisol (LVg-n-w-cc), clay loam on sandy light loam, with a pHKCl of 7.6, humus content of 28.6 g kg-1, K2O – 134 mg kg-1, and P2O5 – 266 mg kg-1. Straw incorporation had no significant influence on bulk density, penetration resistance and quantity of earthworms, but significantly reduced the amount of the smallest <0.25 mm aggregates. No significant differences of bulk density vs. CP were obtained in reduced autumn tillage – SP, and SL, while in reduced spring tillage systems – SR, GMR and NT significant changes were observed only in the first year of experiment at 3–13 cm depth. Soil penetration resistance increased in undisturbed soil layers. In SP it increased from 12 cm depth, in SL from 9 cm depth and in SR and GMR from 6 cm depth, while in NT it became higher from the very soil surface. SR, GMR and NT increased the number and biomass of earthworms and decreased the amount of the smallest <0.25 mm soil aggregates. Significant differences in soil aggregate size distribution and stability were found already in the first year. Reduced and no-tillage significantly increased the amount of water stable aggregates in both 0–15 cm and 15–25 cm soil layers compared to deep ploughing.
Authors and Affiliations
Vaclovas Bogužas, Darija Jodaugienė, Agata Kairytė
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP139692
- DOI -
- Views 155
- Downloads 0
Weed response to soil tillage, catch crops and farmyard manure in sustainable and organic agriculture
The influence of soil tillage, different catch crop species (Trifolium pratense L., Lolium multiflorum Lam., Sinapis alba L., Brassica napus L.) for green manure as well as farmyard manure on weed infestation in a barley...
Winter wheat productivity in relation to water availability and growing intensity
The study was aimed at water availability effects on productivity of winter wheat in relation to growing intensity, including preliminary testing of the DSSAT v4.0.2.0 model. For this purpose we analysed research materia...
Soil physical properties and earthworms as affected by soil tillage systems, straw and green manure management
Conventional tillage is not only high energy and labour consuming process, but it can also have a negative impact on soil properties. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of different tillage system...
Soil surface carbon dioxide exchange rate as affected by soil texture, different long-term tillage application and weather
The current study was carried out at the Lithuanian Institute of Agriculture in Dotnuva on an Endocalcari-Epihypogleyic Cambisol (CMg-p-w-can). It was aimed to investigate the effect of air and soil temperature, air humi...
Comparison of magnesium determination methods as influenced by soil properties
The current study was designed to investigate magnesium content in the soil. Magnesium was determined by the A-L (Egner-Riehm-Domingo), calcium chloride (Schachtschabel, 0.0125 M CaCl2 1:20), potassium chloride (1 M KCl...