How various mulch materials can affect the soil hydro-physical properties

Abstract

An application of different mulch materials may lead to changes in soil properties. Our previous study, focused on the impact of various mulches during the 4-year period, showed that the change in some properties can be very rapid (e.g., soil pH), but in other cases such as hydraulic properties, the changes can be gradual. To find out, whether the extension of the mulching period will further affect the studied soil properties, the experiment continued for another 2 years. Differences between values of organic carbon content (Cox), soil physical quality (S inf), gravitational water (GW) and readily available water (RAW) of soils not covered by any mulch and under various mulches (bark chips; wood chips; wheat straw; Agrotex EKO+ decomposable matting; polypropylene fabric covered bark chips; crushed stone) were much larger than those observed in our previous study. On the other hand, the opposite trend was observed for the water stable aggregates (WSA) index or soil pH. Differences between additionally measured hydraulic conductivities at the pressure head of −2 cm and repellency index (RI) were mostly insignificant. Results indicated that organic mulches can either positively (e.g., increase WSA index and Cox, and decrease GW) or negatively (e.g., decrease S inf and RAW, and increase RI) affect soil properties.

Impact of duration of land abandonment on soil properties

“…Vegetation and its changes during succession can induce soil water repellency (SWR), which characteristics are influenced by agricultural practices (Fér et al, 2020), climate (Sándor et al, 2021), soil water content (Hewelke et al, 2022;Leelamanie and Nishiwaki, 2019), soil water retention (Czachor et al, 2020), soil texture (Benito et al, 2019), soil pH (Fér et al, 2022), soil carbonate content (Drahorad et al, 2021), soil organic carbon (SOC) content (Papierowska et al, 2020), the structure of humic substances (Mielnik et al, 2021), and clay (mainly kaolinite) content (Lichner et al, 2002). SWR is temporally and spatially variable and varies with depth (Sepehrnia et al, 2017;Turski et al, 2022).…”