Long-term effects of conventional and reduced tillage on soil structure, soil ecological and soil hydraulic properties

Schlüter, Steffen; Großmann, Caroline; Diel, Julius; Wu, Gi‐Mick; Tischer, Sabine; Deubel, Annette; Rücknagel, Jan

doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2018.07.001

Cited by 140 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 51 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…While T * has yet to be measured in soils, soil relaxation dynamics which are theoretically sensitive to T * have been observed. Relaxation times of soil properties have been calculated using soil microtopography (Schaetzl et al, 1989;Jyotsna and Haff, 1997;Pawlik, 2013;Samonil et al, 2015), erasure of compaction events (Pfahler et al, 2015;Keller et al, 2017;Schlueter et al, 2018), vegetation changes (Phillips, 2009;Nauman et al, 2015), and landform evolution (Fernandes and Dietrich, 1997;Gabet, 2000;Phillips and Marion, 2004;Pelletier et al, 2006;Hoffman and Anderson, 2014). These studies together provide evidence that relaxation times are not uniform; though the cause of the non-uniformity remains unclear.…”

Section: Soil Memory and Relaxationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These studies together provide evidence that relaxation times are not uniform; though the cause of the non-uniformity remains unclear. For example, estimates of relaxation times following soil compaction range from in excess of 125 years in the Mojave Desert (USA), 25 years for a soil in Northern Germany, and 30 years in the Russian steppe (Webb, 2002;Kalinina et al, 2015;Schlueter et al, 2018). Intriguingly, in most studies, mechanisms which are equivalent to soil stirring (esp.…”

Section: Soil Memory and Relaxationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Integrating Complex Soil Dynamics Using the Non-equilibrium Effective Temperature

Almquist

2020

Front. Earth Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Soil dynamics, such as aggregate turnover, play central roles in modulating global cycles of carbon, nitrogen and water. However, understanding soil dynamics, and the role they play in soil system functioning is complicated by the fact that soils naturally exhibit scale-dependent physical and chemical variability across more than a dozen orders of magnitude in both space and time. The arguments herein center on the components of soil variability whose scale dependency emerges because soils are in the larger sense, non-equilibrium thermodynamic systems. Interestingly a ubiquitous process, soil stirring, or pedoturbation, is widely implicated in affecting long-term processes such as aggregation, horizonation, and rates of chemical weathering. This observation aligns well with advancements recently made in theoretical physics. For a variety of non-equilibrium physical systems, the stirring rate has been shown to be equivalent to an effective temperature of the system, and can be used to recover thermodynamic relationships in non-equilibrium settings. This work primarily presents the mathematical basis for calculating the effective temperature, a measurement approach, and discusses the implications of this framework on several outstanding problems within soil science. While effective temperatures have yet to be measured in soils, this framework has the potential to greatly simplify and compliment the modeling of complex soil dynamics, but also potentially provide a new tool to rectify the discordance between small and large scale rates of soil processes.

show abstract

Section: Soil Memory and Relaxationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Soil Memory and Relaxationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Complex Soil Dynamics Using the Non-equilibrium Effective Temperature

Almquist

2020

Front. Earth Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Previous studies have shown that high soil bulk density, soil compactness, and a hard plow pan hindered root growth and elongation, limited the distribution of roots in deep soil, and reduced water and nutrient absorption by roots in deep soil. These effects impacted the maize canopy and severely limited the potential for increased maize yields [17][18][19][20][21]. Therefore, an important method for increasing yield is to break the plow pan, improve soil quality, and thus make maize grow with good canopy structure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Planting Density Tolerance of High-Yielding Maize and the Mechanisms Underlying Yield Improvement with Subsoiling and Increased Planting Density

Gao

et al. 2019

Agronomy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study examined the planting density tolerance, grain yield improvement potential, and mechanisms of high-yielding spring maize varieties under increasing planting density and subsoiling. We planted two high-yielding spring maize varieties with a high or low tolerance to high planting densities (LM33 and XD20, respectively) at five different densities (D1: 60,000 plants ha−1, D2: 75,000 plants ha−1, D3: 90,000 plants ha−1, D4: 105,000 plants ha−1, and D5: 120,000 plants ha−1) using two tillage methods (35-cm subsoiling and 15-cm traditional rotary tillage). The response characteristics used to compare the performance of the two maize varieties under different planting densities and tillage methods included root characteristics, canopy physiology, yield, and yield components. The results show that: (1) Under rotary tillage, with the increase of planting density from 75,000 plants ha−1 to 90,000 plants ha−1, yields of high-yielding spring maize varieties improved. However, when the planting densities were beyond 90,000 plants ha−1, the yields stopped increase, or even decrease. Subsoiling increased the planting density by 15,000 plants ha−1, enhanced the highest yield by 1080 kg ha−1–1940 kg ha−1, and raised the yield gain by 11.17–30.72%. (2) Under rotary tillage, the functional indexes of the roots and canopy of high-yielding spring maize decreased as planting density increased, and the largest reductions of root dry weight, leaf area index (LAI) of post-anthesis, light transmission percentage (LTP) of ear leaves, bottom leaves LTP, and dry matter accumulation all occurred between D2 and D4. The largest decline of high tolerance variety emerged between D3 and D5, and the extent was smaller than the low tolerance variety. (3) Compared with rotary tillage, subsoiling reduced the extent declines in root dry weight, root length, and root surface area; delayed the attenuation of LAI and the relative chlorophyll content (SPAD) determined in leaves; and improved the LTP of ear layers and bottom layer during the late growth stage. The post-anthesis populations dry matter accumulation of XD20 and LM33 increased by 7.07% and 13.18%, respectively. In addition, subsoiling significantly increased the number of kernels/spike and 1000-grain weight as the planting density increased. Meanwhile, the planting densities at which dry root weight, population LAI, ear leaf LTP, bottom leaf LTP, and dry matter accumulation arose the largest reductions was raised to 15,000 plants ha−1. The effects of subsoiling in the high density-tolerant variety were more pronounced than the low density-tolerant variety.

show abstract

“…Soil cultivation causes specific topsoil conditions. Soil aggregates on the surface after tillage are rather large, the topsoil is loose, the soil surface is rough and free of vegetation (see, for example, the review by Strudley et al [4]) and the soil has a lower bulk density, higher macroporosity, high pore connectivity and high saturated hydraulic conductivity [6]. However, this state is mechanically unstable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimates of Tillage and Rainfall Effects on Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity in a Small Central European Agricultural Catchment

Zumr

Jeřábek

Klípa

et al. 2019

Water

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In arable land, topsoil is exposed to structural changes during each growing season due to agricultural management, climate, the kinetic energy of rainfall, crop and root growth. The shape, size, and spatial distributions of soil aggregates are considerably altered during the season and thus affect water infiltration and the soil moisture regime. Agricultural topsoils are prone to soil compaction and surface sealing which result in soil structure degradation and disconnection of preferential pathways. To study topsoil infiltration properties over time, near-saturated hydraulic conductivity of topsoil was repeatedly assessed in a catchment in central Bohemia (Czech Republic) during three consecutive growing seasons, using a recently developed automated tension minidisk infiltrometer (MultiDisk). Seasonal variability of soil bulk density and saturated water content was observed as topsoil consolidated between seedbed preparations. Topsoil unsaturated hydraulic conductivity was lower in spring and increased in the summer months during two seasons, and the opposite trend was observed during one season. Temporal unsaturated hydraulic conductivity variability was higher than spatial variability. Cumulative kinetic energy of rainfall, causing a seasonal decrease in soil macroporosity and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity, was not a statistically significant predictor.

show abstract

Long-term effects of conventional and reduced tillage on soil structure, soil ecological and soil hydraulic properties

Cited by 140 publications

References 51 publications

Integrating Complex Soil Dynamics Using the Non-equilibrium Effective Temperature

Integrating Complex Soil Dynamics Using the Non-equilibrium Effective Temperature

Planting Density Tolerance of High-Yielding Maize and the Mechanisms Underlying Yield Improvement with Subsoiling and Increased Planting Density

Estimates of Tillage and Rainfall Effects on Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity in a Small Central European Agricultural Catchment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About